[ale] Bash question

[Andrew Grimmke]

Danny Cox wrote:

> 
> Joseph,
> 
> On Wed, 2002-09-04 at 18:16, Joseph Mugerwa wrote:
> 1. i created a file where to keep all the mails to my
freinds
> 2. i have kept all the jokes in one file text format
> and every next joke is separeted with =* sign i.e 
> =*
> joke n1
> blabla xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>  
> =*
> joke n2
> blabla xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>  
<snip>
> 
> 	Here's some ideas that'll get you going in the right
> direction.
> 
> 	1) use wc to count the # of jokes: 
> 
> 		NLINES=$(grep '^=\*$' jokefile | wc -l)
> 
> 	2) use bash's built-in arithmetic plus the $RANDOM
var
> to get a random
> joke number:
> 
> 		(( JOKE = ($RANDOM % $NLINES) + 1 ))
> 
> 	3) select joke number $JOKE to send.  You could use
> perl or awk to do
> this.  Of course you could probably use perl or awk to
> do all of this,
> but the object was using bash.  With enough masochism,
> one could use
> bash to even select the joke, but it'll be rather
ugly!
> 

How about this, or am I on the wrong track?

  cut -d'=*' -f$RANDOM

Andrew

> -- 
> kernel, n.: A part of an operating system that
> preserves the
> medieval traditions of sorcery and black art.
> 
> Danny
> 
> 
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Andrew Grimmke
Marietta, Georgia

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