I am needing to grep a file to extract the date 'Aug 04'. I am using a script to automate this as I need it to scan the file and email the output.

<script>
works (but not completely). I get all Aug data but I also get anything that has Aug and 04 on the line:

file04 Aug 01 ....

#!/bin/sh
nowmonth=`date +%b`
nowday=`date +%d`
cat /home/input | grep $nowmonth | grep $nowday > mail -s .....



I really want to use:
cat /home/input | grep $nowmonth $nowday > mail -s

I try it but it gives me errors after the $nowmonth.
grep: 04: No such file or directory.

but it just does not seem to work right. Any ideas?

(using RH 8.0)

1) You don't need to use cat as grep will read a file directly
2) Quote the string you want to grep for.

So:

grep "$nowmonth $nowday" /home/input | mail foo@bar.com

awesome. thanks. guess i had always used cat to grep and didn't think of alternatives.

j-me

An alternative to quoting is to make use of the regexps:

Note the use of "\ " which is the regexp of space instead of quotes.