Script conversion from SCO Open Server to Red HatEnterpriseneeded...

[Mike Schwartz (PC Support)]

[much good info snipped]
> This is not the quickest & dirtiest, but I would do this:
> Change all the echo's that need backslash codes, from echo to printf, and
> add a trailing \n to any lines that were changed.
> That would be a start towards making the script almost universally
> portable,
> that is, portable across platforms as well as shells.
> 
> Brian K. White  --  brian at aljex.com  --  http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
> +++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++.
> filePro  BBx    Linux  SCO  FreeBSD    #callahans  Satriani  Filk!
> 

     I appreciate all the good info.  Since filePro now has directory
commands and so forth, I've been trying to do as much as possible within
filePro, itself, so I've never learned the nuances of writing scripts that
are portable between SCO Unix variants and Linux.

     If anybody knows of a good reference that succinctly explains the
differences, I would be interested in looking at it.  If not, are there any
good references for making scripts as portable as possible between all of
the Unix variants?

     I have some customers who are locked into SCO Open Server for the
foreseeable future because they have menu systems and other functions
written in "C" and shell scripts, but they either do not have the source
code for the "C" and/or it would be a horrendous job to re-write all the
poorly documented shell scripts. It might be more expedient to attempt a
rote translation of the commands in the shell scripts, rather than try to
figure out the functionality of each one and rewrite each one from scratch. 

Thanks!

Mike Schwartz