terminal input for confirmation -i option

[lackawaxen]

Hi, all.

I have a script that deletes mysql accounts from mysql.user. The user can either get confirmation per deletion with option -i or not. For example,

delete_acct -i ^[abc]

... says delete all user ids beginning with "a","b", or "c" and prompt the person at the terminal for each one. But again, -i is optional. Here's my script so far:

while read userid; do
  if [ $flag="-i" ]; then
    print -n "Are you sure that you want to delete" $userid "?"
    read answer < /dev/tty

    if $answer="y" then delete $userid
    else exit 1

  else
    mysql -BCNnqs --disable-pager -u<username> -p<password> <<EOF
    drop user '$userid'@'localhost';
    quit
EOF

  fi
done < list_master

My problem is the inner part (which is similar to my problem in another post). I originally had an inner if statement but I was getting syntax errors. Embedding another if,else,fi was causing problems. I know that I can't use a for loop from my last post. I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on the best way to approach this problem.

Thanks.

[lackawaxen]

Since I'm still at the top of the queue, I thought I'd that I'm using Ksh.

Also, I was thinking...

What I'm really looking for here is some guidance on flow control and nesting. I learned from a different post that you shouldn't nest for loops. But I'm finding in general that scripting (at least in ksh) is not intuitive. I keep wanting to do stuff like this:

for arg; do
  if func $arg; then

    while arg; do
      if $arg="x"
        print "PASS 1: " $arg
      else
        print "PASS 2: " $arg
      fi
    done

  else
    print "FAIL: " $arg
  fi
done

And it keeps failing. I get errors like "syntax error: `else' unexpected". If anyone knows how to explain this concept simply or can point me to a good reference on this specific topic, I would appreciate it.


Thanks.

[burschik]

Have you tried reading the ksh manpage? The one I have is quite clear on the syntax of loops and branches.