[SOLVED] Trying to understand script

catkin · 07-23-2011, 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenny53067

Is this right: echo "Input information and then press Ctrl+d" on the line before cat >> $file

Looks good; if in doubt you can always try it and see what happens. You can make a backup of your script using the cp (copy) command so if you make a mess of things you can get back to where you were and start over. The cp commands -p option is useful when making backups. You might also want to learn the rm (remove) and mv (move commands).

kenny53067 · 07-23-2011, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catkin

Looks good; if in doubt you can always try it and see what happens. You can make a backup of your script using the cp (copy) command so if you make a mess of things you can get back to where you were and start over. The cp commands -p option is useful when making backups. You might also want to learn the rm (remove) and mv (move commands).

I thank you for the help, I've learned more in the last couple hours than I have all month trying to learn it on my own.

Thanks a lot!!

MTK358 · 07-23-2011, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenny53067

I am unable to locate any of those. the name of my textbook is A practical guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If this helps.

The book says when you use cat, it copies a file to standard output. What is stdin??

stdin is standard input. It's just like standard output. cat reads the text you type from standard input and writes it to standard output, and then the ">>" operator tells the shell to append the standard output of the preceeding command to a file.

http://linuxcommand.org/

http://linuxcommand.org/writing_shell_scripts.php

http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashPitfalls

http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ