Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: What's wrong with this Bourne shell script?
Message-ID: <4K15H:A@xds13.ferranti.com>
Date: 7 Aug 90 19:01:00 GMT
References: <1990Aug3.193231.3166@silma.com>
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 24

In article <1990Aug3.193231.3166@silma.com>, aab@silma.com (Andy Burgess) writes:
> total=0
> ls -ld * | while read line
	...
> echo "Total $total"

Unfortunately, that while loop is run by a subshell. Try this:

total=0
ls -ld * | {
	while read line
	...
	echo "Total $total"
}

Or (better) use AWK:

ls -ld * | awk '{
		total=total+$4;
		print "Subtotal " total
	}
	END { print "Total " total }'

(Someone will come up with a PERL version, 'tis certain)
-- 
Peter da Silva.   `-_-'
+1 713 274 5180.   'U`
<peter@ficc.ferranti.com>