bash script problem

[Marcin Gonet_1]

Hi,

I've got a problem with a script:

#!/usr/bin/sh
cat << EOF | /usr/bin/su - oracle
DATABASE1
/opt/omni/lbin/open_database
EOF

I get:
-bash: line 1: DATABASE1: command not found
/opt/omni/lbin/open_database: line 1: svrmgrl: command not found

Oracle's shell is bash. On another server, where oracle's shell is tcsh, the same script works just fine.

What is the reason? Any ideas?
Marcin

[Karthik S S]

Sounds like a profile /PATH problem to me. Try with absolute paths.

-Karthik S S

[Mark Grant]

bash runs piplines like this in a sub-shell and any unexported variables are not available. This would be my guess as to what is happening. Export any variables your "open_database" command needs including PATH.

Also though, it looks to me like you are doing, in effect, su - oracle DATABASE1". If there is no command called DATABASE1 then I would expect to tget the error you are. What and where is DATABASE1. Having said this, I still think, if it works in another shell that the "bash" behaviour I mention above is still the most likely culprit.

[Marcin Gonet_1]

It is not a problem of paths or variables.

When I login as oracle I have to choose database name, which is in this case "DATABASE1". I don't know why bash behaves differently than tcsh. When I changed oracle's shell to tcsh it works OK.

[Mark Grant]

Then it appears to me we have found another "bash" oddity.

I have tested this myself now and get the same result as you and it looks to be in a "read" in the .profile.

One way around this would be to change the .profile so that it only asked for which database if $DATABASE is not already defined. Then change your script to something like

/usr/bin/su - oracle -c 'DATABASE=DATABASE1 /opt/omni/lbin/open_database'

Though you might need to do "export DATABASE=DATABASE1" these days.

[Mark Grant]

Just thought of another advantage of the above approach.

If you do it like that in the .profile then users can do this at the login prompt

login: user1 DATABASE=DATABASE6
Password:

This will set the variable when they log in. This feture of log in is often forgotten but is oh so useful.

[Bill Hassell]

Just a note about your script: you mentioned bash as Oracle's login shell but your script is explicitly running the HP-UX POSIX shell /usr/bin/sh. Now BASH, KSH and the POSIX shell are all based on the POSIX standards for a shell so most everything is the same. tcsh is completely incompatible with POSIX shells. So I would examine the environment inside your script with the env command (env shows exported values because it is a separate process, set shows local and exported values because it is a shell command).