UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

There are a lot of ways to code something in unix, as this thread shows. (davidl, if your sed finds -rwx other than at the front, it messes up, such as chmod 767).

But be aware that all solutions to this point, except for Perderabo's, address only the basic rwx flags. Perderabo uses more advanced coding, and covers all the bases.

But you need to get your sed command working. Get something simple working first, such as:

echo abcdef | /usr/xpg4/bin/sed -e "s/c/X/"

Oppps...I have a bug Umm..make that...

Code:

[[ ${perms[5]} = S ]] && { ((extras=extras+2000)); perms[5]=- ; }
[[ ${perms[5]} = s ]] && { ((extras=extras+2000)); perms[5]=x ; }

I did:

echo menu | /usr/xpg4/bin/sed -e "s/c/X/"

and the outcome was:

menu (just printed the file name is this the right outcome??)


Any other pointers Jimbo?? We're so close but yet soo far

That little sed test will change every c to X, so a better test of basic sed functionality would be:

echo abcdef | /usr/xpg4/bin/sed -e "s/c/X/"

and then try:

echo abcdef | /usr/xpg4/bin/sed -e "s/./& /g"

to see if it will give you "a b c d e f "

If so, then this should work:

ls -ld somefilename |
cut -c2-10 |
/usr/bin/tr [-rwx] [0421] |
/usr/xpg4/bin/sed "s/./& /g" |
awk '{print $1+$2+$3 $4+$5+$6 $7+$8+$9}'

Sorry Jimbo, didn't work - these are my results:

echo abcdef | /usr/xpg4/bin/sed -e "s/c/X/"
it just printed the file name that i entered after echo e.g. abcdef


ls -ld somefilename |
cut -c2-10 |
/usr/bin/tr [-rwx] [0421] |
/usr/xpg4/bin/sed "s/./& /g" |
awk '{print $1+$2+$3 $4+$5+$6 $7+$8+$9}'
it said error message: /usr/bin/tr Bad string.


I personally think and you'll probably agree that this bit of code is where its going wrong:
/usr/xpg4/bin/sed "s/./& /g"
coz up until there it does everything correctly, it doesn't put spaces between the permission letters

Makaveli.2003, that code works great for me.... Must be something wrong with your sed installation. Is it possible for you to re-install?

echo abcdef |sed -e "s/c/X/" <--should yield--> abXdef

Is the cut command working?

ls -ld filename |cut -c2-10 <--Should yield--> -rwxr-xr-x
(or something along those lines)

Also... it doesn't sound like your tr binary is working correctly either.

This line:

ls -ld somefilename | cut -c2-10 | /usr/bin/tr [-rwx] [0421]

Should be replace all '-' with zero's
all r's with 4's
all w's with 2's.... etc.

For what it's worth, I have access to SunOS 5.6 system. As best that I could, I have tried to duplicate the results that Makaveli.2003 is getting. But I can't reproduce those errors. All all the sed and tr executables seem to be working fine.