Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!nwnexus!amc-gw!stuart
From: stuart@amc-gw.amc.com (Stuart Poulin)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Finding the last arg
Keywords: Bourne shell arguments
Message-ID: <4717@amc-gw.amc.com>
Date: 5 Jan 91 01:28:23 GMT
References: <18476@shlump.nac.dec.com> <1990Dec27.154917.14751@virtech.uucp> <811@npdiss1.StPaul.NCR.COM>
Reply-To: stuart@tfatf.amc.com (Stuart Poulin)
Organization: Applied Microsystems, Redmond, WA
Lines: 17

Of course if you know the last arg will never have white space and
the command line wont have args like "=", you can use expr:
	Last=`expr "$*" : '.* \(.*\)' \| "$*"`

	-or-
Use awk, it can handle a "=" by itself but still no white space.
	Last=`Last=`echo "$*" | awk '{ print $NF }'`

    -or-
Something with sed or grep. 

I like the "for last do :; done" method - it's very clever and always works. 

Stuart Poulin                             DNS: stuart@amc.com
Applications Engineer/System Administrator
Applied Microsystems Corporation         UUCP: amc-gw!stuart
Redmond, Washington  98073               Dial: 800-ASK-4AMC,206-882-2000