Im starting to learn bash. i lvoe it. im trying to do something but want the easy way arround. I made this script: #!/bin/bash #Author = MrJake # #Desc = will display a chmod list # # #Created on Mon Oct 21 20:58:00 EDT 2002 # echo "Chmod help by MrJake" listagain () { echo -n "Need help again (y/n) : " read ANSWER if [ "${ANSWER}" = "y" ]; then echo "Here we go again"; sleep 1; askuser; else exit 1 fi } noinput () { echo "Not a valid input"; echo "Please start again" echo "" } askuser () { echo "CHMOD List" echo "" echo "Please select one of the following" echo "1 list user" echo "2 list group" echo "3 list other" echo "h for help" read CHMODLIST CL=${CHMODLIST} echo "" if [ "${CL}" = "1" ]; then echo "Chmod Permissions for user" echo --" echo "100 ---x------"; echo "200 --w-------"; echo "300 --wx------"; echo "400 -r--------"; echo "500 -r-x------"; echo "600 -rw-------"; echo "700 -rwx------"; echo ""; listagain elif [ "${CL}" = "2" ]; then echo "Chmod Permissions for group" echo ---" echo "010 ------x---"; echo "020 -----w----"; echo "030 -----wx---"; echo "040 ----r-----"; echo "050 ----r-x---"; echo "060 ----rw----"; echo "070 ----rwx---"; echo ""; listagain elif [ "${CL}" = "3" ]; then echo "Chmod Permissions for other" echo ---" echo "001 ---------x"; echo "002 --------w-"; echo "003 --------wx"; echo "004 -------r--"; echo "005 -------r-x"; echo "006 -------rw-"; echo "007 -------rwx"; echo ""; listagain elif [ "${CL}" = "h" ]; then echo "chmod help"; echo "d = dir" echo "r = read" echo "w = write" echo "x = execute" echo ""; listagain elif [ "${CL}" = "help" ]; then echo "chmod help"; echo "d = dir" echo "r = read" echo "w = write" echo "x = execute" echo ""; listagain else noinput; askuser; fi } askuser Now where i need help is with the input from the user. If the user enters y for askagain function then it will go and call askuser function. But if he replies andthing else including nothing or n or whatever it will exit. now the problem is this. How do i make it that if the user enters Y or Yes or yes or YES instead of y is there a way for me to make it so that his input is forced to y if it starts with Y or y? the only way i found was with if, elif but man this can make it long. What if i fall upon some very dumb user that types YeS then im screwed hehe. Any suggestion that will fix my issue is welcomed with great smile :) remember im a real noobie at bash or any shell scripting. please bare with me hehe. thanks

I'm just learning BASH myself, but I'm not writing anything like that. "make clean" blew me away! LMAO! I'm going to follow this thread. Folks, before you leave, please remember to piss all over anything pro-TCPA or pro-M$ Palladium. Thanks!

You should use "case" instead echo "yes or no? " read vari case "$vari" in n|N|NO|no) echo "No!!" ;; y|Y|yes|YES) echo "yes!!!" ;; *) echo "anything else" esac

Well hehe the next thing in my tutorial is about case lol. but the thing is its not exactly what i wanted. its still requiring that i feed it as much info as i can. I was looking for something more like making it format the ionput of user to go along with if something like echo -n "Do it again? (y/n) : " read ANSWER AS=${ANSWER} #<--im lazy #this is where i want it to be formatted #but im lost I know u can play with [a-z][A-Z] thingy 3cant we make it so that if user enters YES it becomes y. or YeS becopmes y. Yoo ignored and No = n etc.. without having to have 6 examples of what to use to make a decision #then if [ "${AS}" = "y" ]; then command1 else exit 1 fi thats it I like case bu what is not turning me on is the Y|y|Yes|YES|yes|YeS|yES|yeS thing hehe is there any way arround that?

Get just the first character. translate to lowercase. var=YeS; echo $var | awk '{ print substr($1,0,1) }' | tr 'YN' 'yn'

$AS=`echo $ANSWER|awk '{print tolower(substr($1,1,1))}'`

Get just the first character. translate to lowercase. var=YeS; echo $var | awk '{ print substr($1,0,1) }' | tr 'YN' 'yn' sounds good to me David but what does it mean ? but Danny i think i understand yours. im just not familiar with awk $AS=`echo $ANSWER|awk '{print tolower(substr($1,1,1))}'` can u explain? I told you im learning lol. its like telling someone well solidfuel is simple. do this. 738ab*5%/38.2938 to 3827* will result in 84.384%/374/32.38475 (this is a BS command to explain how I dont understand the command u suggest hehe)