UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hey everyone!
I hope someone here is good with Unix CGI scripts.
I'm having trouble with my CGI. Here's the deal

I've created a program that searches the passwd file and cuts the users real name when it's given the login name. When i converted it to CGI i ran into some problems:

1) when you put one login name in, it echo's a statement (user is online/offine) 6 times! BUT when you put 2 or more, there is no repeating.

2) i dont think $* works when doing for loop. i had to hard code up to 6 variables (could be more though)

can anyone offer any help? I also ported this into an HTML version, but still have the same problems. (could have swore i had this working, but when i saved the HTML one, i over wrote the working one, and i forgot what changed i made )
I think it's my quotes but i'm not really sure anymore lol

here's my code:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

echo "Content-Type: text/plain"
echo ""

slice=`echo $QUERY_STRING|cut -d= -f2`

if [ "$slice" = "" ]; then
   echo Please go back and enter a login name
fi

name1=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f1`
name2=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f2`
name3=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f3`
name4=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f4`
name5=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f5`
name6=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f6`
names="$name1 $name2 $name3 $name4 $name5 $name6"

for name in $names
do
   who | grep $name > /dev/null

   if [ $? = "0" ]; then
      echo "Yes `grep "$name" /etc/passwd | cut -f5 -d:` is online"
   else
      echo "No `grep "$name" /etc/passwd | cut -f5 -d:` is offline"
   fi 
done

Thanks!
primal

p.s. if you would like to see what i mean go to http://hal.humberc.on.ca/~crrd0120/ login name: crrd0120

If you insert "set -x" just before your loop (or anywhere after the Content-type) you will get lots of debugging info about what is going on. That may help you find the problem.

I went to the URL and it appears to be working fine. Have you already fixed it?

If not, I think it may be a combo of problems between the lines:

name1=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f1`
name2=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f2`
name3=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f3`
name4=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f4`
name5=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f5`
name6=`echo $slice|cut -d+ -f6`

and the $? = "0"

I think if you are doing a cut -f6 but you did not feed it a 6th name, name6 will be set to nothing. When you do a who | grep > /dev/null, this may return 0 on some systems because it runs but does not produce output. I tried on Sun and actually got a return code of 2 plus a STDERR about the correct usage of grep. You could simply add a test to the loop that checks to see if $name != "". If it doesn't, then process the username, otherwise just exit because you know if name3 is blank, name4,5, and 6 are aswell.

Oh yea, i got it working eventually. Had to code in an if statement.
Having a little trouble with the HTML version, but I'm gonna try and work through it. if not... I'll be back for anyones help!
thanks people
primal