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From: skdutta@cs.tamu.edu (Saumen K Dutta)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: How variables can be specified as arguments
Message-ID: <7298@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 9 Aug 90 22:40:37 GMT
Sender: usenet@helios.TAMU.EDU
Distribution: usa
Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University
Lines: 43

Pardon my ignorance wizards! I am confronted with a very simple
and tricky problem which I am not able to solve. The problem
comes with the following shell script:

--------------------------------------------
#! /bin/sh

read_KEY1() { echo -n "Key => " ; read key;
                         while  [ -z "$key" ]
                        do
                                echo Key cannot be blank , Type again
                                echo -n "Key => " ; read key;
                        done
                        }   
 
 
 
read_KEY1 
echo "The Key is: " $key
------------------------------------------

This will just ask you for the value of key until you type something.

The problem is to pass the string as a parameter and let 
it assign value the user types into it. 

e.g. 

read_KEY1 "key" 

should define a new variable called key and
assigns it's value according to what user types.

I am not able to solve this ! Please help me

-- the dumbo


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