Bash script - repeated command
 

Hi folks,

I have a script which needs following command to repeat confirmation on questions.

If for 10+ confirmations there will be a long script. Kindly advise how to avoid it.

TIA

B.R.
satimis

y dont' you just use the while loop??

Just make a seperate file having the questions and then use the script as

q_file is the file containing all the question u ask i the script.

But "cp -r /home/satimis/Document/*" does not suggest the folder name. Thus only copies the "Document/" contents only everytime. So it is not fuctional for what satimis is trying to do.

How about:

This assuming "q_file" looks like:
Photo
Documents
New_Folder
Whatever

Also I think you want:

cp -r /home/satimis/$i/ /home/satimis/Temp/dir1/

Because you want to copie the whole directory and not just the files within right?

But micxz is missing the dir1, dir2, ... requirement, what about:

Point taken i just missed on that.:D

for i in `cat q_file`

is the same as

for i in Document Photo.....

In this example, so how am I missing dir1 and dir2...

If you look closely to the requirements, each copy is going to a different directory:
Document is going to dir1
Photo is going to dir2,
your solution is copying all to dir1, so doesn't comply.

By the way:

is doing the very same operation that
assuming $i is a directory, I dont see a point here.

Yep your right and I see now about this being pointless. Maybe it was meant to be:

cp -r /home/satimis/$i/ /home/satimis/Temp/

Then maybe there is a point.

Nope, the same.

The only difference in using a trailing slash is that if $i is a file, an error is triggered and the file is not copied, while with no slash, whether it is a file or a directory doesn't matter, it is copied to the destination directory.

For the first remark, I was not arguing of using a separate file for the directory list, which can be a good idea, especially if the file itself need to created by another program, but about the extra level of directories necessary to avoid same name files to be overwritten.

Hi folks,

Lot of thanks for your suggestions. Hereinunder is the complete script
dir1, dir2…. etc. are only transit directories. The files copied to there will be removed finally after the running of the whole script.

Actually this is not a good arrangement. But I’m not allowed to touch the “cdrecord” commandI need a further confirmation before adding dir1, dir2, dir3…. etc. each to the ISO file.

Have any other suggestions? TIA

B.R.
satimis

Some comments:

you call the cancel command if the user is not willing to add Document of Photo directories. This command's purpose is to cancel a printing job in progress, I'm quite sure it's not what you meant.

Why didn't you take or comment any of our suggestions about optimisation ?

You last loop isn't testing the validity of the directory entered.

#!/bin/bash
# Set ISO filename...
user=$(whoami)
now=$(date +%Y.%m.%d.%R)
ISO_File="/home/satimis/To_burn/image_${user}_${now}.iso"
dir1=/Document/=/home/satimis/Temp/dir1/
dir2=/Photo/=/home/satimis/Temp/dir2/


# This starts my modifications. Note this is untested!
cp_documents() {
cp -r /home/satimis/Document/* /home/satimis/Temp/dir1/
}

cp_pictures() {
cp -r /home/satimis/Pictures/* /home/satimis/Temp/dir1/
}

REPLY="B"
until [ $REPLY = "" ]
do
echo "Choose one of the following:"
echo
echo "[D]ocuments"
echo "[P]ictures"
echo "[B]oth"
echo
echo "[Enter] = Exit"
echo

read

case "$REPLY" in

"D" | "d" )
# Accept upper or lowercase input.
cp_documents
;;

"P" | "p" )
cp_pictures
;;

"B" | "b" )
cp_documents
cp_pictures
;;

* )
# Default option.
# Do nothing for other keys
;;

esac
done


# The rest of the script is yours
# Create ISO file...
mkisofs -R -l -graft-points -hide-rr-moved \
$dir1 \
$dir2 \
$list |\
cdrecord dev=ATA:1,0,0 -v -eject -

Hi /bin/bash,

Tks for your advice.

Testing result is as follows;

Script
$ ./cdmakerIt hung here.

Remark: also tried P,p,B,b
same result

B.R.
satimis

You have to user read REPLY on place of just read so that variable read is assigned a value.