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From: rolf@sparc1.isgs.uiuc.edu (Rolf Wilson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: status code from ftp
Message-ID: <1991Jan31.222142.12395@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 31 Jan 91 22:21:42 GMT
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 27

I have a routine to transfer a file to another machine
by ftp. That part works fine. I want to delete the
file that I sent if the transfer worked. That part 
does not.

#!/bin/sh
ftp -n othermachine <<!
user me
put myfile
quit
!
if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
  rm myfile
fi

The $? return code is always 0, even if the other machine
is never found. Does ftp not return a non-zero code on
failure? Is this not "the last command executed". What
horribly simple thing do I not understand?
  Replies by e-mail, please.

  Thank you very much.

--

Rolf Wilson   Illinois State Geological Survey   rolf@sparc1.isgs.uiuc.edu