Shell script help: not working as I like

ETC Homework & Coursework Questions
1

Student just starting to learn shell script
I have file named

smallFile

John:Doe:ECE:3.54:doe@jd.home.org:111.222.3333
James:Davis:ECE:3.71:davis@jd.work.org:111.222.1111
Al:Davis:CS:2.63:davis@a.lakers.org:111.222.2222
Ahmad:Rashid:MBA:3.74:ahmad@mba.org:111.222.4444
Sam:Chu:ECE:3.68:chu@sam.ab.com:111.222.5555
Arun:Roy:SS:3.06:roy@ss.arts.edu:111.222.8888
Rick:Marsh:CS:2.34:marsh@a.b.org:111.222.6666
James:Adam:CS:2.77:jadam@a.b.org:111.222.7777
Art:Pohm:ECE:4.00:pohm@ap.a.org:111.222.9999
John:Clark:ECE:2.68:clark@xyz.ab.com:111.111.5555
Nabeel:Ali:EE:3.56:ali@ee.eng.edu:111.111.8888
Tom:Nelson:ECE:3.81:nelson@tn.abc.org:111.111.6666
Pat:King:SS:2.77:king@pk.xyz.org:111.111.7777
Jake:Zulu:CS:3.00:zulu@jz.sa.org:111.111.9999
John:Lee:EE:2.64:jlee@j.lee.com:111.111.2222
Sunil:Raj:ECE:3.36:raj@sr.cs.edu:111.111.3333
Charles:Right:EECS:3.31:right@cr.abc.edu:111.111.4444
Diane:Rover:ECE:3.87:rover@dr.xyz.edu:111.111.5555
Aziz:Inan:EECS:3.75:ainan@ai.abc.edu:111.111.1111
Lu:John:CS:3.06:lu.john@xyz.org:111.333.1111
Lee:Chow:EE:3.74:chow@lc.www.ord:111.333.2222
Adam:Giles:SS:2.54:giles@cric.org:111.333.3333
Andy:John:EECS:3.98:john@aj.ece.edu:111.333.4444

Display lines, with line numbers, records of CS majors.

grep -n '\<CS\>' smallFile

Shell Script:* Pick one of the grep commands that you created above. Put that grep command in a shell script.* The name of the shell script is your choice. Run the shell script.*
Turn in the contents of the shell script and the output of the shell script run.

the shell scripts name is CS_STUDENTS code is

CS_STUDENTS=$(grep -n '\<CS\>' smallFile)

echo $CS_STUDENTS

I get some thing like this

:~> \. CS_STUDENTS
3:Al:Davis:CS:2.63:davis@a.lakers.org:111.222.2222 7:Rick:Marsh:CS:2.34:marsh@a.b.org:111.222.6666 8:James:Adam:CS:2.77:jadam@a.b.org:111.222.7777 14:Jake:Zulu:CS:3.00:zulu@jz.sa.org:111.111.9999 20:Lu:John:CS:3.06:lu.john@xyz.org:111.333.1111

(purposely left out of a code box to get the appearance as close to as I actually got)

I believe I need a out come to look like this

:~> \. CS_STUDENTS
3:Al:Davis:CS:2.63:davis@a.lakers.org:111.222.2222 
7:Rick:Marsh:CS:2.34:marsh@a.b.org:111.222.6666 
8:James:Adam:CS:2.77:jadam@a.b.org:111.222.7777 
14:Jake:Zulu:CS:3.00:zulu@jz.sa.org:111.111.9999 
20:Lu:John:CS:3.06:lu.john@xyz.org:111.333.1111

I have tried modifying the shell script several times and no luck

this is only the second shell script I have done what should I change in the shell script

Waubonsee Community College
Sugar Grove Illinois
Professor: Tim Lippold
Linux/UNIX Operating System CIS180
Book being used is Harley Hahn's Guide to Unix and Linux

Note: Without school/professor/course information, you will be banned if you post here! You must complete the entire template (not just parts of it).

2

There are sometimes reasons to store output from a pipeline in a variable and then print the contents of the variable, but you haven't shown us any reason to do that here. Why are you using a variable?

It is ALWAYS a good idea to tell us what operating system and shell you're using when you start a thread in the UNIX & Linux forums. Although most BSD, Linux, and UNIX system commands produce similar output when using common tools and options, there are variations. Knowing what OS and shell you're using helps us avoid suggesting code that will not work in your environment.

If you take your code:

CS_STUDENTS=$(grep -n '\<CS\>' smallFile)

echo $CS_STUDENTS

and change it to:

CS_STUDENTS=$(grep -n '\<CS\>' smallFile)

echo Unquoted:$CS_STUDENTS
echo 'Single-Quoted:$CS_STUDENTS'
echo "Double-Quoted:$CS_STUDENTS"

what happens?

You may want to look at the man page for your shell and search for a section titled "Quoting" to see how single-quotes, double-quotes, and back-quotes affect command-line arguments.

3

Aside comment: It's not recommended to have identical names for scripts, functions,variables, and / or commands.