[acascianelli]

I want to write a script in KSH that uses another file as a config file to read in variables. Can somebody help me out and maybe provide some code I can work off of. Lets say a script called 'program' needs a file called 'config' that contains the lines...

FTP=123.123.123.123
USER=AIX
PASS=RULEZ

...I would need to read those lines into 'program' and assign them as variables within 'program'.

Thanks.

[dh3235]

config
FTP=123.123.123.123
USER=AIX
PASS=RULEZ

a.ksh
#!/bin/ksh
. ./config
echo "The value of FTP is: $FTP"
echo "The value of USER is: $USER"
echo "The value of PASS is: $PASS"

That should get you want you want. The key line here is the . ./config, which tells the script to source the file named config. By default, any changes made to your environment only affect the process you are currently in, and not the parent process environment. This causes issues since you want to run a script (config in this case) to set environment variables. The process of running the config script from the a.ksh script causes the config script to run as a child of the a.ksh script, and thus any changes to the environment that the config script does, only affects it's own process environment, and not that of the parrent (a.ksh). By sourceing the config script with the leading period, changes made to the environment are done in the parent process.

Now, I see that you are wanting to have FTP credentials for an automated FTP script or something similar. Do a man on ftp, and search for .netrc. The .netrc file allows you to specifiy FTP credentials for use in automatic FTP logins.

Hope this helps,
Dave

[kierong]

In "program" include the following line to source the config file. Note the period at the beginning of the line. The variables should then be set for the program to use.

. /some-directory/config

[acascianelli]

Originally Posted by dh3235

config
FTP=123.123.123.123
USER=AIX
PASS=RULEZ

a.ksh
#!/bin/ksh
. ./config
echo "The value of FTP is: $FTP"
echo "The value of USER is: $USER"
echo "The value of PASS is: $PASS"

...

I think this will work perfectly. Thank you very much.