Apologies. I've been out of Unix for 14 years, and the gears have rusted. Also, Unix has changed - enough similarities to memory that I'm pretty comfy though.

Glad to see lots of info available via google. However changes are going to take getting used to. Have set up a testbed of 3 nearly identical machines, hoping to make an (at home) private network where I can automate installs and set-ups using NIS and NFS (Similar to work I once did).

Have found useful scripts interspersed with comments, would like to copy and paste them to a bash script that:

Reads the line.
Echos the line.
Reads the reply.
Executes what is typed.

Essentially, by making myself type (or copy & paste) the commands I think I'll become familiar.

Figured I'd use a spreadsheet, select the file, and paste into column B of the spreadsheet. In column A I'd paste:

echo "

and in column C I'd paste:

"

Then I'd cut and paste into a text document, insert the lines:

read A
$A

behind every command necessary to the actual task.

Figured I'd have to escape the ' and ".

Ran a test (test.bash):

#!/bin/bash
for i in `seq 1 10`;
do
echo "Enter a command:"
read A
echo "Trying $A"
$A
done

works fine when I type

ls -alg

but not so when I type

ls -alg | grep dwrx

so I'm wondering if someone has a suggestion?

Thanks for any ideas.

try using

There is a typo. It should be eval instead of evaal.

Try adding a new 2nd line

Thanks I was typing on a tablet!

Thanks! eval (oh yeah! I remember that now!) does the trick. Also thanks for the set -xv, which will be useful when the scripts have been modified to fit my situation. Appreciate it!