topic Re: for loop with command line parameters in Operating System - HP-UX

for loop with command line parameters

Leo The Cat — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:59:16 GMT

Hi

I'd like to do something like that: call a script named test.ksh with *.txt in command line parameter.

Example:

./test.ksh *.txt

Actually my script is

...
for target in $1
do
echo $target
done

And the output result provided is
*.txt

What is wrong ?

Thanks in advance
Regards
Den.

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Jeff_Traigle — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:05:43 GMT

Not sure why you're output would be *.txt. Assuming you want it to list all of the files ending in .txt, either of these options appears to work:

1.) Quote the argument to your existing script: ./test.ksh "*.txt"

or

2.) Change your script to use $* instead of $1

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Tim Nelson — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:06:36 GMT

how about this.

for target in `ls $1`
do
echo $target
done

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Tim Nelson — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:10:06 GMT

oops. typo

for x in `eval ls $*`
do
echo $x
done

limited to either 9 or 15 command line args.

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Steven Schweda — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:22:38 GMT

> What is wrong ?

Where to start...

Here's a directory with a few files.

td192> ls -l
total 40
-rw-rw-rw- 1 antinode 513 4 Jun 12 17:06 a b c .c
-rw-rw-rw- 1 antinode 513 192 Mar 5 10:54 lame1.c
-rwxrwxrwx 1 antinode 513 54 Jun 12 17:03 test.ksh
-rwxrwxrwx 1 antinode 513 56 Jun 12 17:05 test2.ksh
-rwxrwxrwx 1 antinode 513 54 Jun 12 17:07 test3.ksh

td192> echo *.c
a b c .c lame1.c

td192> echo *.fred # No such files exist.
*.fred

That's what shells do nowadays when wildcard
expansion ("globbing") comes up empty-handed.

> 2.) Change your script to use $* instead of $1

Not such a good idea if you have weird file
names. For example:

td192> ./test3.ksh *.c
a
b
c
.c
lame1.c

Better:

td192> ./test2.ksh *.c
a b c .c
lame1.c

td192> diff test3.ksh test2.ksh
3c3
< for target in $*
---
> for target in "$@"

> 1.) Quote the argument to your existing
> script: ./test.ksh "*.txt"

Yeah, but it does put an excessive burden on
the victim.

And, of course, if your wildcard gets
expanded into a zillion file names, you can
overrun the shell's command-line length
limit, requiring a different approach (of
which many exist).

"man sh" and friends cover this kind of
thing, but it's not a three-minute read.

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Steven Schweda — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:36:40 GMT

Oh, yeah. In case it wasn't obvious:

td192> cat test2.ksh
#!/bin/ksh

for target in "$@"
do
echo $target
done

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Leo The Cat — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:52:08 GMT

Hi

Sorry, to be exact here what I want really to do.

DEST=$2
cd $1
for target in `ls $3`
do
if [[ ! -f $2/$target ]]
then
echo "Append ..." $DEST/$target
#cp $target $DEST
fi
done

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Leo The Cat — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:57:56 GMT

The script is called with 3 arguments
Source, destination and what king of file ...

Addnewfiles ${ORACLE_HOME}/jdk.orig/jre/lib/ext ${ORACLE_HOME}/jdk/jre/lib/ext *.jar

Sorry for this incomplete and important information.

Regards
Den.

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Steven Schweda — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:59:09 GMT

> [..] to be exact here what I want really to
> do.
> [...]

That looks to me like a shell script, which
is not a description of what you really want
to do. Unless it already does what you
really want to do, in which case, the problem
is solved, and everyone is happy at last. If
you're happy, then I'm happy. (If you're
_not_ happy, then you may need to describe
the problem better.)

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Leo The Cat — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:11:22 GMT

Sorry Steven

I want to copy files from a directory ($1) into another directory ($2) only for non already exists files and only for particular kind of files ($3).

Thanks for your patience ;-)
Best Regards
Den.

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Dennis Handly — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:11:01 GMT

>I want to copy files from a directory ($1) into another directory ($2) only for non already exists files and only for particular kind of files ($3).

Your script works fine, what's the problem?
DEST=$2
cd $1
for target in $(ls $3); do
if [[ ! -f $2/$target ]]; then
echo "Append ..." $DEST/$target
cp $target $DEST
fi
done

Note you have a "$2" in the "if". You should be consistent and use $DEST.

Your only problem is you need to quote your pattern:
Addnewfiles ${ORACLE_HOME}/jdk.orig/jre/lib/ext \
${ORACLE_HOME}/jdk/jre/lib/ext "*.jar"

Re: for loop with command line parameters

Leo The Cat — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:44:47 GMT

Answers were enough to go in the good way !
Thanks Guys.