UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,
I want to delete the files under a particular path automatically. TO implement it i have written a script. The following is the script,

#!/bin/ksh
DM_DBA=/apps/user/dba
cd $DM_DBA

test=/apps/user/dba
if [ ! -d $test ] ; then
echo "\n $0: Fatal error: missing directory $test \n"
exit 1
else
echo "directory exist"
fi

testfile= $test/test.log
if [ -f $testfile ]
then
echo "\n ***** test.log file exist ***************\n"
rm $testfile
echo "\n ****** after deletion ****************\n"
fi

echo "\n *************** after if loop ****************\n"

When i execute the above script, the following is the output,

directory exist
deletefile.ksh[16]: /apps/documentum/cdrom/apps/buildcd/test.out: cannot execute
*************** test.log file exist ****************
usage: rm [-fiRr] file ...
*************** after deletion ****************
*************** after if loop ****************


Can anyone please tell me what is wrong in my code? Why does it says the error ,

/apps/documentum/cdrom/apps/buildcd/test.out: cannot execute
and
usage: rm [-fiRr] file ...

Please help me on this........

Thanks in advance

There are several problems:

1) "test" is a unix commando. Better do not use "test" as the name for a variable, command, etc. Name it "foo" "bar" or anything else, it will spare you some strange effects.

2) You are working in the Korn shell and should NOT use "echo" as a means to produce output. Use the built-in "print". Your usage of "echo" will not cause any immediate problems, but is not good programming style.

3) There is a typo in one of your declarations:

testfile= $test/test.log

The space-char after the "=" is wrong. Perhaps this is leading to subsequent problems when expandig the variable. Find it out by issuing "print - \"$testfile\"" immediately before the rm-statement. It will give you the value of $testfile surrounded by double quotes, so will be able to see if there are nonprinting characters.

And, just because it fits in here: if you issue some command with variables as arguments make sure the variables get expanded the way you intended them to be expanded:

print $foo

looks innocent enough. As long as $foo expand to something like "bar" everything is fine, but how about this:

foo="-u3 bar"
print $foo

now the shell expands this to "print -u3 bar" and is not placing output to the screen as before but to I/O-channel 3 which probably points to nowhere. This is why i use always "print -" instead of "print", because the hyphen tells the print-command that everything following it is to be printed and not an option. For other commands there are similar security-devices on could (and should) employ.

bakunin

Hi bakunin,

As you have specified the space-char after the "=" is wrong. I have corrected the space and changed the variable "test" to some other variable name and executed the script.
For eg, logfile=$logdir/test.log

Now the script is working fine and i can able to delete the file without any errors.

Thanks for all your help!!