Hi I'm new to shell scripts, so I'm hoping someone can help me with the following problem. I'm trying to write a shell script (bash) using Red Hat 7.1. I'm trying to get the script to look at each file in one directory (Dir1) and, if the file does not exist in in the second directory (Dir2) or the version in Dir1 is different/older than in Dir1, copies the file from Dir1 to Dir2. I use the following command- (name of script is shellscript) bash shellscript Dir1 Dir2 This is the program I have done so far, but I'm getting a few errors. #list name of script echo $0 echo " " #check if the directories exists if [ -d $2 ] then if [ -d $1 ] then #change prompt to first directory listed cd $1 #list name of first directory echo "$1" echo " " #iterate through all files in the first directory for filename in `ls` do #print each file in the directory $1 echo $filename done do #check if each file in first directory is in the second directory if [ -e $2/$filename ] then #check to see if the file in first directory is newer than the one in the second directory if [ $1/$filename -nt $2/$filename ] then #if file newer, copy it to second directory cp $1/$filename $2/$filename #name files that were backed up echo "$1/$filename was backed up" fi else cp $1/$filename $2/$filename echo "$1/$filename was backed up" fi done echo " " cd $2 echo "$2" echo " " for filename in `ls` do if [ -e $1/$filename ] then if [ $1/$filename -nt $2/$filename ] then cp $2/$filename $1/$filename echo "$2/$filename was backed up" fi else cp $2/$filename $1/$filename echo "$1/$filename was backed up" fi done echo " " else echo "Path 1 is not a directory" fi else echo "Path 2 is not a directory" fi Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!!

Mark - Well, I'll pass along a trick you can use to get a lot more information about what is happening in your scripts. 1) As the 1st command in your script put: set -x 2) As the last command in your script put: set +x 3) Execute your script like this example: ./myscript 2>&1 | tee myscript.log When it is all done, edit myscript.log for details about what the script is doing. HTH, Guy

Thanks. I'll give it a go.