What is echo $#

[bisla.yogender]

Hi,

Could any one please suggest me what does echo $# and echo $$ prints.

I know that echo $? gives us the exit status.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Yogender

[devils casper]

$# prints list of parameters passed to script and $$ prints process id.
If execute echo $$ at command prompt, it will print process id of shell only.

#!/bin/bash

# Its a test script : test.sh

echo "First Parameter : \$1 = $1"
echo "Second parameter : \$2 = $2"
echo "Total passed parameters : \$# = $#"
echo "All parameters : \$* = $*"
echo "Process Id  : \$$ = $$" 
exit 0

Execute it like this

./test.sh 1 2 3 4 5

echo $$
ps

[bisla.yogender]

Thanks...

now i got the point.

thanks again.

Yogender

[meton_magis]

You may be aware of this, but if i'm not mistaken, $? gives you the return value of the last command / function, which can include an exit statement, but it does for ALL functions and commands. This doesn't seem like a huge deal, but i wasted a couple hours writing a script that absolutely would not work how i designed it because i didn't realize that almost every action updates the $? variable.

[drl]

Hi.

The table, Special Shell Variables, at http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/refcards.html#AEN19999 , is part of a tutorial, both of which may be useful ... cheers, drl