HINTS (Re: [NBLUG/talk] Homework questions)

sms at sonic.net sms at sonic.net
Sat Apr 10 15:54:39 PDT 2004


> but ultimately and sometimes with much grumbling I figured it out or
> figured out where I needed to go to find the resource, which is
> invaluable now.

<nod>

An answer that's just _given_ to you won't help your learning; it won't
help you if your concern is "real life" knowlege, and it won't help you
if you want to learn the material.

All it can do is give you an answer for homework.  Boost your grade.

They're actually trying to do the best thing they can for you, according
to their best understanding.  This isn't the only LUG where the folks
will be ENTIRELY helpful but will NOT answer homework-queries (at least,
not directly!).


THAT SAID... variable-substitution in shell-scripts generally works by
pretending that you're typing the exact command you want, then marking
off the "variable" part(s) and instead of that text, putting in the shell-
variable to substitute.  You may need positional varibles $0 etc...

Sometimes, you may need to fiddle with various "escape" and "quote" type
mechanisms to get it to all work right; these topics should be in your
textbook, or you can pick up one of the excellent titles on the topic
(I like O'Reilly, in general; on the topic of shell-scripting, the SAMS
book by Kochan & Wood is also excellent).


Hopefully, nobody will feel my "hints" are over-broad.  Hopefully, you'll
find 'em useful.


- Steve S.







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