Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:27364 comp.unix.shell:1025
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!star.cs.vu.nl!maart
From: maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Variable substitition
Message-ID: <8419@star.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 4 Dec 90 21:30:28 GMT
References: <1990Nov30.092424@cs.utwente.nl> <8393@star.cs.vu.nl>
Sender: news@cs.vu.nl
Reply-To: maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath)
Organization: VU Dept. of Computer Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Lines: 34

A slight improvement of my original solution.

# How to get the last argument of a shell script reliably.
# If you are sure the number of arguments is in [1-9], you can use this:
#
#	eval last=\$$#
#
# The general solution works for ANY number of arguments.

set a b c d e f g h i j k l m -n	# For example.

case $# in
0)
	# So the user tried to be funny; let's give him a little surprise.
	exec kill -SYS $$
	;;
[1-9])
	eval last=\$$#
	;;
*)
	last=`
		n=$#
		set '' ${1+"$@"}
		shift $n
		echo -n "$1"
	`
esac

echo "last=|$last|"
--
Q: "Is there a newsgroup for astrology/para-normal?"
A: "Why don't you consult the stars and find out ??"

	--  Phil Watson <pwatson@sunb.mqcc.mq.oz.au>