Searching for directory then symbolic link

[lewisjd]

Hello, let me start with a little background. We moved to a new server and a lot of our directories changed. When we submit programs to the remote server they go into a "work" directory. The "work" directory is not in our home directory, which makes it difficult to find our datasets, especially for new users. An ex employee had written a script that lists that dir, greps for your username and then symbolic links that folder into your home folder. We have found issues with it (if you have more than one dir for one) but none of us have the scripting experience to fix it. I ahve tried and tried but have come up short. What is happening is it will find the first two directories, link 1 and 2, but 3 and 4 will be the same dir as 2. Can you guys help out?

edit: Here is the directory(directories) we need linked..They change each time new code is run. SAS_work and lpima9001 will never change. (i removed some of the listing output)

[10:59:45 lewisjd]$ ls -la /opt2/saswork | grep lewisjd

SAS_work7A660003C0D2_lpima9001
SAS_workDDCA0006F0F6_lpima9001


Heres the code...

WSTR="SAS_work"
WPATH="/opt2/saswork/"

OWORK=`ls $HOME | grep work`
MWORK=`ls -la ${WPATH} | grep $USER`

case $OWORK in
*"work4"*)
rm -rf $HOME/work
rm -rf $HOME/work2
rm -rf $HOME/work3
rm -rf $HOME/work4;;
*"work3"*)
rm -rf $HOME/work
rm -rf $HOME/work2
rm -rf $HOME/work3;;
*"work2"*)
rm -rf $HOME/work
rm -rf $HOME/work2;;
*"work"*)
rm -rf $HOME/work;;
*) echo;;
esac

case $MWORK in
*"$WSTR"*)
SWORK=${MWORK%%"$WSTR"*}
IDX=${#SWORK}
MWORK=${MWORK:$IDX}

SWORK2=${MWORK%"$WSTR"*}
IDX2=${#SWORK2}
MWORK2=${MWORK:$IDX2}

SWORK3=${MWORK%"$WSTR"*}
IDX3=${#SWORK3}
MWORK3=${MWORK:$IDX3}

SWORK4=${MWORK%"$WSTR"*}
IDX4=${#SWORK4}
MWORK4=${MWORK:$IDX4}

if [ "$SWORK2" == "" ]; then
ln -sf $WPATH$MWORK $HOME/work
else
MWORK=${MWORK:0:30}
ln -sf $WPATH$MWORK $HOME/work
ln -sf $WPATH$MWORK2 $HOME/work2
ln -sf $WPATH$MWORK2 $HOME/work3
ln -sf $WPATH$MWORK4 $HOME/work4
fi;;
*) echo "No work.";;
esac

[CodeRoot]

Give this a try:

#!/bin/bash

WSTR="SAS_work"
WPATH="/opt2/saswork/"

for TEMP in `ls -d $HOME/work* 2>/dev/null`; do rm -rf $TEMP; done

let COUNT=0
for TEMP in $WPATH$WSTR*
do
  TEST=`ls -Ald $TEMP | grep $USER`
  if [ "$TEST" != "" ]; then
    let COUNT=$COUNT+1
    ln -sf $TEMP $HOME/work$COUNT
  fi
done

Please understand that 'rm -rf $TEMP' can be very dangerous! This will delete anything in the user's home directory beginning with 'work'...

If it is not absolutely necessary for the links to start with 'work', I would like to suggest that you use something like 'SAS_work#' -- otherwise, it would be good to add some code that would at least check to make sure the target is a soft link...

One other thing -- I hope it is OK to use 'work1' instead of 'work'...

[lewisjd]

Great, thanks I will ty that. I understand about the rm-rf. I warned the guy before me regarding the usage of it. For the most part this server isn't being used a whole lot so there aren't any files out there to delete...yet. Before I push it to everyone, I will definately NOT be using rm -rf.Thanks for the reply!

[CodeRoot]

Great, thanks I will ty that. I understand about the rm-rf. I warned the guy before me regarding the usage of it. For the most part this server isn't being used a whole lot so there aren't any files out there to delete...yet. Before I push it to everyone, I will definately NOT be using rm -rf.Thanks for the reply!

You are very welcome...

Please feel free to come back for more help if you need it to improve upon your script. (I speak with regard to the forums, not just me -- I believe there are several people here who write BASH scripts, many/most of whom are surely far more experienced with BASH than I am -- of course, I will also be more than happy to help if I can... )