this is my first attempt at bash script. it was very hard to figure out (me being a C++ and Java programmer) and i feel like making my own interpreter now. put the script in /usr/bin and associate your .tar.gz .tar and .gz files with it. then all you have to do is click on them once and they will automatically extract to a folder. i'm sure you'll be able to figure out how to add more extentions.

thanks to all the people who helped me figure this thing out!

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
echo "Required parameter not provided."
else
#get the lowercase string for string comparing
fFile=`echo $1 | tr [:upper:] [:lower:]`

if [ ${#fFile} -gt 7 ] && [ `expr substr $fFile $(( ${#fFile}-6 )) 7` = ".tar.gz" ]
then
#echo "found .tar.gz"
gunzip -d $fFile
tar -xf `expr substr $fFile 1 $(( ${#fFile}-3 ))`
elif [ `expr substr $fFile $(( ${#fFile}-2 )) 3` = ".gz" ]
then
gunzip -d $fFile
elif [ `expr substr $fFile $(( ${#fFile}-3 )) 4` = ".tar" ]
then
tar -xf $fFile
else
echo "The parameter provided does not end with .tar.gz .tar or .gz"
fi
fi




---newbie note: put this into a text editor and save it... then do a chmod 755 /usr/bin/decompress so that the system *allows you to use it*

Put everything in [ code ] [ / code ] tags
It'll keep it's formatting

[ `expr substr $fFile $(( ${#fFile}-6 )) 7` = ".tar.gz" ]

Instead of all that.. which is a little messy, I'd do
echo <var>|grep tar.gz

Or.. if you are going to do it that way, use a switch.. and only perform that operation once.

hey dude, this took me hours... i never imagined

myvar=

and

myvar =

would be 2 different things... but yeah, a switch statement would be much better than an else if ladder... but everything that's bash that i touch turns to "bad something-or-other" ... so i'm not going to screw with it anymore tonight!!

and the evil message board took away all my whitespace formatting!!!

Put formatted text with spaces and such inbetween the [code] tags when wanting to keep the format of your scripts, etc in the forums...

what do you mean by formatted text? how do i do that?

Ummm.. when your making your posts, by default the forums will not read any extra spaces or tabs in your text, if you place them inbetween the code tags by doing something like this:

I put 5 spaces inbetween each word on the following line:

Hey look at this

It will look like this in the forums if you use the [ code ] tags:

kewl, ty =)

So, versalius can you post the script again with the correct formatting

thanks