UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

i've been given an assignment to Write a system utility called recycle that satisfies the following requirements as they might be displayed in a UNIX/Linux man page:

NAME

recycle - stores files in a recycle bin

SYNOPSIS

recycle [OPTION] ... [FILE]

DESCRIPTION

Recycle is a replacement for the rm system utility and simulates the Recycle Bin found on Windows systems. Rather than removing files, it moves them into a subdirectory located in your home directory called .recyclebin. If recycle is called without any parameters it displays the contents of the .recyclebin directory if it exists and tells the user there is no recycling available if it does not exist.

OPTIONS

Command line options are explained below. Only one option can be used for each call to recycle.

-a add a file for recycling. If this -a option is used and there is no .recyclebin directory, recycle notifies the user, automatically creates the directory and moves the file to .recyclebin

-e removes all files from .recyclebin and prints a message saying that the recycle bin is empty.

-h prints out a short usage message with showing the options


Here is a use case showing recycle at work:

$ ls -l *.c # list existing C source files
-rw-r--r-- 1 usr user 31 foo1.c
-rw-r--r-- 1 usr user 31 foo2.c

$ recycle
No recycling exists

$ recycle -a foo1.c

.recyclebin does not exist. Creating the .recyclebin directory and adding the file now...

$ ls -l foo1.c
foo1.c not found

$ recycle -a foo2.c

$ ls -l foo2.c
foo2.c not found

$ recycle
-rw-r--r-- 1 usr user 31 foo1.c
-rw-r--r-- 1 usr user 31 foo2.c

$ recycle -e
The recycle bin is empty

$ recycle

____________________________________________________________
i've done majority of the coding needed to produce the desired output. however my problem is that i can't get to include the "-a", "-e","-h", options.
my code works as it is e.g: if i try an option :-" ./recycle test "
(would send the executable file "test" to a folder created called recyclebin. h0wever if i try:- "./recycle -a test" it doesn't work .i created the options "-a", "-e","-h", using a case statement but still no luck. here's my code that works and the code with the case statement that doesn't work:

******************************************************
this one works with out the options

#!/bin/sh
clear

#./home/jjohnson/assignment2/trial
#echo $./home/jjohnson/assignment2/trial
#./home/jjohnson/assignment2/trial = $./home/jjohnson/assignment2/trial :./trial



if [ $# -ne 1 ]
then
echo " No recycling exist "

elif [ -d recyclebin ]
then
echo "directory exist"
mv /assignment2/$1 /recyclebin
else
echo "No recycling exist "
echo " Creating the .recyclebin directory and adding the file now..."
mkdir /assignment2/recyclebin
mv /assignment2/$1 /assignment2/recyclebin
fi


#ls -l /recyclebin/ didplays the files and their permissions in the recyclebin
#rm * /recyclebin empties all contents from the recycle bin
#echo "The recycle bin is empty"
************************************************

this one with options doesn't work

#!/bin/sh

clear


if [ $#- ne 1 ]
then
echo "No recycling exist "
if [ $#- ne 1 ]


read option
case $option in


-a)
if [ $#- ne 2 ]
then
echo "No recycling exist "

elif [ -d recyclebin ]
then
echo "directory exist"
mv /assignment2/$1 /assignment2/recyclebin
else
echo "No recycling exist "
echo " Creating the .recyclebin directory and adding the file now..."
mkdir /assignment2/recyclebin
mv /assignment2/$1 /assignment2/recyclebin
fi
#mv /assignment2/$1 /assignment2/recyclebin

;;

-e)
rm * /assignment2/recyclebin
echo "The recycle bin is empty"
;;
-h)
echo "usage "
;;

esac

*******************************************


please guide me accordingly

You might look at Getopt and getopts

But surely you don't expect any of us to write your homework, right?

... at least he wrote a working script and described in detail what the issue was, unlike many posters who allegedly are professionals and ask for very complex stuff but make no effort to write anyting...

The link was very helpful.thanks a lot. And i'd rather do the coding myself. thats the only way i'll learn this stuff.Again thanks a lot