UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

find /dir1 -type d|awk '{print length, $0}'|sort -nr|cut -d " " -f2-  |
while read dir
do
  # do something with "$dir"
done

#!/bin/ksh
START_DIR="$1"
if [ ! -d "${START_DIR}" ]
then
        echo "Directory missing: ${START_DIR}"
fi
cd "${START_DIR}"
#
while true
do
        CURRENT_DIR="`pwd`"
        if [ "${CURRENT_DIR}" = "/" ]
        then
                break
        fi
        echo "${CURRENT_DIR}"
        #
        # Actions per directory go here
        #
        NEXT_DIR="`dirname ${CURRENT_DIR}`"
        if [ "${NEXT_DIR}" = "${CURRENT_DIR}" ]
        then
                break
        fi
        cd "${NEXT_DIR}"
done

var="/a/b/c/d/e/f"

while [ -n "$var" ] ; do
     print - "before: $var"
     var="${var%/*}"
     print - "after : $var"
done

before: /a/b/c/d/e/f
after : /a/b/c/d/e
before: /a/b/c/d/e
after : /a/b/c/d
before: /a/b/c/d
after : /a/b/c
before: /a/b/c
after : /a/b
before: /a/b
after : /a
before: /a
after :