Sysadmin chuckle whats wrong with this code

[Steven E. Protter]

cd `dirname $0` || exit 1
casdir `pwd`

Hint: It will work from the command line. It won't work when the system is restarted.

These are the first two lines of uncommented code in this script.

10 points to the any answers that I think didn't benefit from a posted answer.

I won't identify the company involved. Lets just say it was provided by a large application company.

Is there any scenario under which this code could have been successfully tested on an HP-9000 server at start time?

Please tell me. That's worth a bunny too.

SEP

[Sundar_7]

hmm..is the script name casdir and this script is included in the startup ? Am I understanding your question correctly ?

[Steven E. Protter]

script name is cas

casdir is their attempt to set an environment variable for later use.

first line of code is supposed to cd to the directory the script lives in otherwise exit, because the script doesn't exist.

That in itself is a little strange because if the code is executing the script clearly exists. Still, it makes sense because if the directory doesn't exist the process can't possbily succeed.

SEP

[Rodney Hills · Accepted solution]

If caddir `pwd` is suppose to be setting an environment variable, then should it be
casdir=`pwd`
or
. casdir `pwd` (if casdir is a script...)

We aren't talking csh here are we?

-- Rod Hills

[Michael Schulte zur Sur]

SEP,

could you please be more specific about
start time and
restarted?

greetings,

Michael

[Steven E. Protter]

Right answer with the bunny.

Whats wrong with the code is it needs a PATH variable which is not present when a system is starting.

How this code ended up in my lap, I don't know.

I'm probably going to ask Dan to nuke this thread.

SEP