Thanks a lot for ur responses
those have really helped me a newbie in this world of shell scripting
i would like to know after sourcing the functions to the main script can i call the functions just by the name
functions.sh has a function s_interval
eg
main_script.sh is as follows
functions.sh
echo "functions called"
s_interval

will this suffice or do i need to use any other way of calling the s_interval function

i have to also find the total execution time of the script
is it possible to take the start time and the completion time and then subtract the start time from the completion time.
can anyone of u help me in doing this or atleast providing a hint.
can i do it this way, let me know if its correct.
start_time()
{
date+%H%M%S
}
end_time()
{
date+%H%M%S
}

s_interval()
{
arg1=start_time()
arg2=end_time()
arg3=expr arg2-arg1
}

thanks in advance
Shalini

See the time(1) man page. This is what you
should use to determine the total execution
time of your script.

Hi Shalini,

After sourcing the functions (with '. functions.sh') call the functions by their name like for a standard unix command.

You can use the shell variable SECONDS to determine the execution time.

$SECOND : nb seconds since shell was invoked

#Script example
echo "Start of script"
echo "SECONDS=$SECONDS"
echo "Sleep 5s"
sleep 5
echo "SECONDS=$SECONDS"
echo "Sleep 3s"
sleep 3
echo "SECONDS=$SECONDS"
echo "End Of script"
echo "SECONDS=$SECONDS"
#-----

Execution :

Start of script
SECONDS=0
Sleep 5s
SECONDS=5
Sleep 3s
SECONDS=8
End Of script
SECONDS=8

Jean-Pierre.

Thanks
But
How can i get the execution time in the following format
Time has to be in the format of HH:MM:SS
script_name|1:30:30|Total Time|
can we pass parameters to function if yes then how?

The following function print total time :

Total_Time() {
ss=${1:-SECONDS}
mm=`expr $ss / 60`
ss=`expr $ss % 60`
hh=`expr $mm / 60`
mm=`expr $mm % 60`
echo "$0|$hh:$mm:$ss|Total Time|"
}

Jean-Pierre.

Thanks
So this will give me the total execution time of the shell script in HH:MM:SS format
but in this script have not considered the start time and the completion i.e end time of the script

The variable $SECONDS contains the number of seconds since the script was invoked.

The function Total_time print the total time since the start of the script.

The following version of the function accept end and start time as arguments :

#
# Total_Time : Print interval time in HH:MM:SS format
# Arg1 = End time in seconds, default $SECONDS
# Arg2 = Start time in seconds, default 0 (start of script)
#
Total_Time() {
etime=${1:-SECONDS}
stime=${2:-0}
ss=`expr $etime - $stime`
mm=`expr $ss / 60`
ss=`expr $ss % 60`
hh=`expr $mm / 60`
mm=`expr $mm % 60`
echo "$0|$hh:$mm:$ss|Total Time|"
}

# Get Start time
start_time=$SECONDS

# Work . . .
. . . .
# Get End time
end_time=$SECONDS

# Print Interval time
Total_Time $end_time $start_time

Jean-Pierre.

Thanks for the response
can u let me know if the way i am doing is right or wrong

The Statement
echo $SCRIPT_NAME "|"`date '+%m/%d/%y |%H:%M:%S'"|Started |"`>> ${OUTPUT} -- this is reqired to be logged in a file
date +%H%M%S -- this i have given so that this function returns the the time in HHMMSS so that it can be passed on to the execution_time function

my functions.sh has the following
################################################################################
# Record the Start Time
################################################################################
start_time()
{
echo $SCRIPT_NAME "|"`date '+%m/%d/%y |%H:%M:%S'"|Started |"`>> ${OUTPUT}
date +%H%M%S

}

################################################################################
# Record the Completion Time
################################################################################
completion_time()
{
echo $SCRIPT_NAME "|"`date '+%m/%d/%y |%H:%M:%S'"|Completed |"`>> ${OUTPUT}
date +%H%M%S
}
################################################################################
# Record the Execution Time
################################################################################
execution_time()
{
h1=`echo $1 | cut -c1-2` # Get Start Hour
m1=`echo $1 | cut -c3-4` # Get Start Minute
s1=`echo $1 | cut -c5-6` # Get Start Second
h2=`echo $2 | cut -c1-2` # Get Stop Hour
m2=`echo $2 | cut -c3-4` # Get Stop Minute
s2=`echo $2 | cut -c5-6` # Get Stop Second
s3=`expr $s2 - $s1` # Calculate Second Difference
if [ $s3 -lt 0 ] # Test for Negative Seconds
then
s3=`expr $s3 + 60` # If yes - add one minute...
m1=`expr $m1 + 1` # ... and to subtractor
fi
m3=`expr $m2 - $m1` # Calculate Minute Difference
if [ $m3 -lt 0 ] # Test for Negative Minutes
then
m3=`expr $m3 + 60` # If yes - add one hour...
h1=`expr $h1 + 1` # ... and to subtractor
fi
h3=`expr $h2 - $h1` # Calculate Hour Difference
if [ $h3 -lt 0 ] # Test for Negative Hours
then
h3=`expr $h3 + 24` # If yes - add one day
fi
for number in $h3 $m3 $s3 # Loop through numbers...
do
if [ $number -lt 10 ] # If number is single digit...
then
echo "0$number\c" # ... add leading zero
else
echo "$number\c" # ... else - don't
fi
done
echo "" # Terminate the string
}

my main_script.sh has the following
. ./functions.sh
arg1=start_time
//work that is to bedone
arg2=completion_time

execution_time arg1 arg2

seems to be Ok.

If your shell is 'ksh' or 'bash' don't use 'expr'.
Instead of :

s3=`expr $s3 + 60`
m3=`expr $m2 - $m1`

you can do :

(( s3 += 60 ))
(( m3 = m2 - m1 ))

Jean-Pierre.

Hi
But when i run the following in the main script
. ./functions.sh
arg1=start_time
//work that is to bedone
arg2=completion_time

execution_time arg1 arg2

arg1 does not consist of the date time
and hence the error comes that numeric argument is expected for the execution_time
can u please let me know if its possible to return time type of data from the start_time function that i have specified in the previous communication

thanks in advance

The correct syntax for arg1 and arg2 assignment is :

arg1=`start_time`
arg2=`completion_time`

Jean-Pierre.

Thanks a lot Jean for your help.
can you please let know how do i proceed to get more knowledge on shell scripting