Bashscripts.org

Hello.

I am writing a script that queries the permissions on certain files and displays them in a neat form.

When I run this command string:

I get this (which is all that I want displayed in the results from the script):

(btw, I added the " " to the awk argument for a nicer display)

Now, I have several files I want to do this to, so why repeat the awk argument over and over. So, I thought about putting it into a variable:

but the script never returns anything. I have tried various things, such as adding echo to the variable, but to no avail. Does anyone know of the magic 'thing' that I need to do to get this work?

Thanks...and, sorry, but my awk knowledge is not that great.

You could create a function instead and pipe the output through that.

you know, I tried that earlier, but left off the ; at the end of the function ...so thanks for pointing that out and the help. It works great!

Try it like this:



The output is the value of variable PERMS, and you can do whatever you want with it.

Don't parse ls(1) output.
You can use stat(1).



Also, to assign a command / function output to a variable you have to use $(...).
For example: myvar=$(getperms /etc/hosts) (notice that myvar is not written with uppercase letters, because if it does it'd mean it's a shell environment variable (by convention))