I have two files, FILE1: AAAAA FFFFFFF WWWWW SSSSSSS FILE2: SSSSSSSSSS XXXXXXXXXXXXXX EE CCCC MMMMMM WWWWW ooooooooo WHAT I WANT TO DO IS, if (line 6 of file2 = line 3 of file1) then echo "yes" else echo "no" fi Another one is, if (line 6 of file2 = anyline of file1) then echo "yes" else echo "no" fi I have tried with if $(head -n 6 file2.txt| tail -n 1)= $(head -n 3 file2.txt| tail -n 1) but not success, if anyone can advice that will be great. Many thanks

I think this handles your first example: !/bin/ksh if [[ $(head -6 file2|tail +6) = $(head -3 file1|tail +3) ]] then echo "Yes" else echo "No" fi Although I might be wrong, I think your second example requires you to cycle thru file1: #displays 2-No, 1-Yes, 1-No myline=$(head -6 file2|tail +6) while read fileline do if [[ "$myline" = "$fileline" ]] then echo "Yes" else echo "No" fi done < file1

Many thanks for your reply, nails The first script definitely sort out the problem. But the second script , whatever i have the same line in the file1 , the output is "no" and coming like that. TIGERMAN@your-8vzdnak0rt /home/naing/bash $ ./test.sh No No No No No No what i am trying to do is if line6 of file2 , i mean "wwwww" here , is same as anyline of file1, output is "yes" one word only and otherwise "no" one word only. Thanks for your time. Many thanks,

Ok, then use a flag that is only checked once the while loop completes: cnt=0 myline=$(head -6 file2|tail +6) while read fileline do if [[ "$myline" = "$fileline" ]] then ((cnt+=1)) fi done < file1 if [[ $cnt > 0 ]] then echo "Yes" else echo "No" fi

Thanks for your reply, i have tested the code, but the output always say "no". Thanks

I think I know what the problem is. With the earlier shells such as the Bourne shell, when the while loop executed, a new shell was spawned. Any variables updated within the shell spawned by the while loop, revert to whatever value was when the while loop terminates. Here is an example Bourne shell script, test.ss: #!/bin/sh # test.ss # cnt=0 myline=`head -6 file2|tail +6` while read fileline do if [ "$myline" = "$fileline" ] then cnt=`expr $cnt + 1` echo $cnt fi done < file1 echo $cnt # should be 1 # Execute the above script, and the variable cnt should equal 1. (It does with the newer bash and ksh shells) Try executing the above script. If $cnt equals 0, then your problem is as I've described. Is there a fix? You can execute the script by "sourcing" it: . test.ss (if you aren't familiar with sourcing, that's a period, a space, and the script name). Sourcing a file forces all changes made in child shells to be reflected in the parent. I've never used cygwin, so I can't tell you for sure. you'll just have to try it out.

Many thanks for your reply, i have tested and the output is "0" as you said. I start using cywin and linux just about a couple of week ago, so it is hard to understand about sourcing. But i found many of your replies in this forum and i was trying to modify these scripts and now i can make it work not direct way but indirect way. Many thanks for your time