How to run this program with only one input file at a time

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

i have a program ABC, which runs every two minutes and takes the input according to the a value called "pointer"

files need to be processed by ABC are

input0001
input0002
input0003
input0004
input0005

current value of pointer is 0001, now program runs and takes all the files from input0001 onwards and processes all till input0005.

i want to process only one file in each run of this program, instead of all in single run.

i have only the right to rename the input files and process them one by one. if i'll make input0002 to input0002.stop , program will stop, but how to resume it back, and rename all files one by one. i cant make any change in the program. plz help

2

Where does it get that value?

If you have "pointer" in a variable, use it:

pointer=0001

do_whatever "input$pointer"
3

I'm not clear on something: How do you provide ABC with the value of "pointer"? And does ABC figure out that if it sees file input0001 that it should continue with input0002 and then with input0003 etc? Do you have the permission to create a softlink? Try it with:

ln -s input0003  single-input

and provide "single-input" to the program ABC.