Solaris shell script how to use variable inside command

Question

I am trying to create a small shell script in Solaris which checks the number of connections per month for the current logged in user, but I am having problem in using a variable inside a command in the right way.

This is my script:

current_user=$(who am i | awk '{print $1}')
echo The logins for user \"$current_user\" were:
echo January: 
last | awk '$1=="${current_user}" && $5=="Jan" {count++} END {print count}'
echo February: 
last | awk '$1=="${current_user}" && $5=="Feb" {count++} END {print count}'
.
.
.

and it prints:

The logins for user "username" were:
January:

February:

.
.
.

janos · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-19 22:46:16Z

2

You can pass variables to awk using the -v option, for example:

last | awk -vuser="$current_user" '$1==user && $5=="Jan" {count++} END {print count}'

Alternatively, you could break out of the single quoted string:

last | awk '$1=="'"${current_user}"'" && $5=="Jan" {count++} END {print count}'

answered Nov 19, 2016 at 22:46

janos

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3 Comments

Manos Over a year ago

Thank you! The second option worked, but I am trying to find out why the first one didn't.

Andrew Henle Over a year ago

@Manos Which Solaris version of awk are you using? There are multiple different versions of awk on a normal Solaris install. The default one is pretty old.

Manos Over a year ago

@Andrew Henle It has an oawk version.

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