Newbie shell script question

bogidu · 02-27-2007, 10:54 AM

I'm wanting to create a command line script that runs ping against each line of the /etc/hosts file.

I think I've got the basics of it but don't have something quite right.

$ for each $i in /etc/hosts
> do
> ping $i
> done

Yes, I know my syntax is wrong, I'm just trying to figure out where I'm screwing this thing up. Any help is appreciated, Thanks.

Bill

SciYro · 02-27-2007, 11:25 AM

why dont you actually try to run it?

I just did because i was bored.

1) there is no "for each" in shells.
2) the "$" is not needed
3) you cant use it to look into files

back to the drawing board for you! May i recommend using "cat" to extract the lines?

alienDog · 02-27-2007, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bogidu

I'm wanting to create a command line script that runs ping against each line of the /etc/hosts file.

I think I've got the basics of it but don't have something quite right.

$ for each $i in /etc/hosts
> do
> ping $i
> done

Yes, I know my syntax is wrong, I'm just trying to figure out where I'm screwing this thing up. Any help is appreciated, Thanks.

Bill

for i in $(cat /etc/hosts)

should work for reading the hosts file, but then you will need to use cut/grep/sed to get rid of the excess information (i.e. comments, hostnames and so on). I think you'll also need to set IFS like this before the for-loop:

IFS=$'\x0A'$'\x0D'

Remember to unset it after the loop.