UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

This is a high-level explanation, if more details are needed, please do not hesitate to ask.

I have a set of .ctl files which I want to execute:

AV1.ctl
AV2.ctl
AV3.ctl

I have a script which has a for loop in it:

for filename in AV1 AV2 AV3
do
. execute_another_script.sh
done

The "execute_another_script.sh" has a bunch of commands and they all exit with a return code. I then want to modify my script so that once it executes the "execute_another_script.sh" script I can get the return code from that script.

I have tried the following:

for filename in AH1 AH2 AH3
do
. execute_another_script.sh
echo $?
done

But that doesn't work, the "execute_another_script.sh" gets executed, but I do not get the return_code printed in the log file.

If I get rid of the '.' I get the return code but the variable $filename is not being read by the '.execute_another_script.sh' script.

I am not sure if I am calling the script correctly, do I need the '.'?

Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated.

Calling a script with the use of the "dot-space" notation causes the script to be sourced in the current environment, that is, all the variables contained in the script will be available for use outside (in the for loop).

You can obtain the same effect with the bash "source" command builtin (have a look at bash man page). According to that, the return status will be the status returned by the last executed command in the script, so your code should be ok.

Maybe you're not using bash, other shells could possibly behave differently (I don't know).

Anyway, I don't see the need for you to call the script in that way, simply modify your "execute_another_script.sh" script, let it read the $1 variable from the command line and pass directly the "filename" value to the script in the for loop:

Code:

for filename in AH1 AH2 AH3
do
   execute_another_script.sh $filename
   echo $?
done

Thanks a bunch!

Displaying the $filename variable after the script I wanted to execute worked.

Thanks again.

P.S. I am using the Bourne shell.