UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all,

We have migrated from a unix solaris server to a linux server. When we run the same pieces of code, they are behaving very differently. Some of the problems I am facing are -

cat filename | read var1 var2
echo "var1 var2"

works in unix, but returns null values in linux.

Similarly, I am not getting any results when I give the 'compress' command. It gives me an error saying "compress not found".

This is impacting a lot of the legacy code. So, is there any way I can enlist the differences at once and go and fix all of it instead of having to fix them one by one when they fail?

Thanks for your time!

interesting.... what do you on Solaris?
First, echo have

Code:

echo "var1 var2"

where you probably meant:

Code:

echo "${var1} ${var2}"

besides the above, this will not return anything as you're PIPING to 'read' which creates a subshell which exits after the 'read' is done and your var1/var2 vanish as well.
Your $PATH env var probably does not include the directory where 'compress' resides on linux (if it's installed at all).
Take a look at this OS comparison chart, but your problems are much more shell fundamental....

There are alot differences in syntax and commands when going from Unix to Linux or vise versa.

That compairison chart is helpfull, thanks...

Thank you Vgersh99!!

My apologies. I meant $var1 and $var2.

About creation of a subshell, is this behavior specific to linux? I didnt have this problem before. Or is there something I can do to mitigate these differences (as you mentioned that they are shell fundamental)?

No, this is a fundamental shell behavior - irrespective of the OS.
As I said, what you quoted for reading a pipped input to 'read' does not work on Sun/Solaris' ksh.
An alternate paradigm is the following:

Code:

$ cat /tmp/aaa
aaa bbb
$ read a b < /tmp/aaa
$ echo "[$a] [$b]"
[aaa] [bbb]
$