topic Re: script help in Operating System - HP-UX

script help

Anthony khan — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 13:44:29 GMT

Hi All, I am having a problem in if statement, here's what i have....
filecheck=`find . -name "test*.txt"`

if [ $filecheck -eq 0 ]
then
exit
fi

What I am trying to get is if $filechekc is empty then script exit else it continue, but i am getting the following error

./test[4]: test: argument expected

Can someone tell me what i'm doing wrong

Re: script help

Carlos Fernandez Riera — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 13:54:15 GMT

filecheck=`find . -name "test*.txt"`

if [ $filecheck -eq 0 ]
then
exit
fi

If find does not find anything $filecheck will remaing empty so ... two ways:

if [ "$filecheck" -ne "" ] ...

or better
if [ -n "$filecheck" ]....

See man test.

Re: script help

S.K. Chan — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 13:55:28 GMT

The test statement in if is not quite right. It should be ..

if [ $filecheck = "" ]
...

which test for empty strings. The one that you use test for numbers.

Re: script help

Paula J Frazer-Campbell — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:05:51 GMT

Hi

Another way:-

--------------------------------
cd

counter=`ll -R | grep test.file | wc -l`
if [[ $counter = 0 ]]
then

exit

fi
-----------------------------------

HTH

Paula

Re: script help

Mark van Hassel — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:05:58 GMT

Anthony,

Another option is to add a line count:

filecheck=`find . -name "test*.txt" | wc -l`

This way you don't have to change your if statement.

HtH,

Mark

Re: script help

Corthouts Carlo — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:06:40 GMT

Hi,

The problem you are seeing is that you are comparing a null value with zero which is not possible.

A better way to go about it is doing the following.

if [ $filecheck ]
then
echo "a value exists"
else
echo "nothing"
fi

This way if $filecheck is empty it is false if some value is moved to $filecheck it is always true.

Re: script help

David Diaz — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:08:05 GMT

Make sure you export the filecheckc variable.
Also use the "=" instead of "-eq". Scripts act a little funny with the alpha characters instead of the symbols when using numbers.
Hope this helps...

David

Re: script help

Bill Hassell — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:09:11 GMT

You can simplify this a bit:

filecheck=$(find . -name "test*.txt")
[[ "$filecheck" = "" ]] && exit

Note the use of $( ) which is preferred over the archaic form: ` ` (see man sh-posix and man ksh).

Re: script help

Rui Soares — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:09:23 GMT

Anthony,

It doesn't work because you're trying to compare a string with a number (and probably an empty string by the look of the error message).

So I suggest that you add:

| wc -w

To the find command, so it spits out the number of ocurrences found (as it is now, it will only collect the files found).
Afterwards, you can compare numbers to numbers.
Just in case you get nothing from the variable, you should also prefix the $filecheck with a zero, so it has always a value:

if [ 0$filecheck -eq 0 ]

Good luck!

Rumagoso

Re: script help

V. V. Ravi Kumar_1 — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:18:35 GMT

hi

try this

if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then

else
do this
fi

regds
ravi