UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I tried:

tr ["\-rwx"] ["0421"]

tr ["rwx\-"] ["4210"]


in this script:
print -n "Enter file name: "
read name
if [ -f $name ]
then
ls -ld $name | cut -c2-10 | tr [-rwx] [0421] | sed "s/./& /g" | awk '{print $1+$2+$3 $4+$5+$6 $7+$8+$9}'
else
echo "This is not a file"
fi


But still same error message: tr: Bad string.

I just treid a few combinations of what Jimbo suggested, but dont seem to be getting anywhere. Im sure there must be an alternative??

Anybody got any suggestions??

This worked for me:

#echo "rwx" | tr rwx 421
421

Your version of tr thinks that we are trying to specify a range such as a-z because of the hyphen, even though we have escaped it with the backslash. It might work if we specify it as an octal value (works for me), so try one of the following:

echo rw- | tr ["\55rwx"] [0421]
echo rw- | tr ["\055rwx"] [0421]

No Jimbo, still aint working. Still says....tr: Bad string.

sbw1 - were do u want me to input this? on the comand line or in my script?

I tried: #echo "rwx" | tr rwx 421 on the comand line, but it didnt work.

Until we get the tr command working, let's just keep it as you just tried, and with no hyphen because that adds a complication.

What unix/linux are you using? You might have a different tr command on your system that will work better. The one you are using now will be shown with:

which tr

Try to find another one with:

find /usr -name tr
find /bin -name tr

If you find one, you can try it, for example:

echo "rwx" | /usr/ucb/bin/tr rwx 421

Think I just got some where jimbo??

This is what i just did: on the promte line just typed:

echo "rwx" | /usr/bin/tr rwx 421

and it printed this:

421



I aint got a clue wat that command did , but that was the outcome???? Can u explain wat that did? and how can i use that in my script??