USER command newbie REVISED

[Bob Stockler]

Walter Vaughan wrote (on Wed, Jun 08, 2005 at 11:45:51AM -0400):

| <reposted to correct typing error. I manually typed in second line 
| incorrectly>
| 
| For testing purposes I have in a sample file's input processing table @key
| processing like the following:
| 
| @keyT::user phone = /usr/local/bin/ssh ff at facetphone 
| /usr/facetphone_utapi/bin/fp_cid -n -s -u person:
| ::ph = phone:
| ::msgbox ph:
| ::end:
| 
| What seems odd to me is

What seems odd to me is that you didn't first send something
to the USER program before asking it what it returned.

| 1) why cannot the user command be called from a variable?

The USER command syntax has always required the user program to
be an unquoted name (if in $PATH) or pathname.

| 2) why does "ph" only contain data for the first time it is encountered on a
| processing table? Moving record to record, ph is blank every time the user
| command is run. I could see that if I stayed on the same record, but moving 
| from record to record?

Here's how I understand the use of USER:

  1 - The USER program itself is one that loops, reading a string
      sent to it, and returning to the filePro program the results
      of whatever action it took on the string it received.

  2 - The "USER name = pathname" is executed only once, then the
      processing loops to send a string to the USER program and then
      read what's returned.

I'm not even sure that the arguments to "/usr/local/bin/ssh" are
being read by filePro.  I do know that the rule is that nothing
other than there is supposed to be nothing other than the USER
command on the line, and perhaps filePro reads up to the end of
the pathname and quits.  Just the other day I tried to redirect
the standard error of a user program to a file:

  Then: USER prog = /tmp/script 2>/tmp/errors

and the redirection was ignored (though I got no syntax error, as
one might get if a comment was put on that line).

I don't understand the command you're trying to use, but is "person"
in it a long name variable?

Are you trying to use that command over and over, from record to
record, and getting a different response with each record?

I think you want to put your command within a shell script that loops:

  trap '' 2
  while read person
  do /usr/local/bin/ssh ff at facetphone \
       /usr/facetphone_utapi/bin/fp_cid \
       -n -s -u $person
  done

and, in your table:

      Then: USER pnone = /path/to/script
  Loop  If:
      Then: phone = person
      Then: pn = phone ; msgbox pn ; goto Loop
      
[snipped some stuff I couldn't read]

I could probably be of more help if I better understood exactly what
you are trying to do.

Bob

-- 
Bob Stockler - bob at trebor.iglou.com - http://members.iglou.com/trebor
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