trimming a file but got error?

[yls177]

when i trim a file, i have this error "Invalid null command."
i can do it with root, with shell ksh. but when i am switch to other
user, i get the above error and that user shell is csh. the file
belongs to the switch user.

any ideas?

[joe durusau]

yls177 wrote:

> when i trim a file, i have this error "Invalid null command."
> i can do it with root, with shell ksh. but when i am switch to other
> user, i get the above error and that user shell is csh. the file
> belongs to the switch user.
>
> any ideas?

The simple answer is to use whatever shell you wish. If you had posted
the
command you are using, someone could give you a better answer.

Speaking only for myself,

Joe Durusau

[Doug Freyburger]

yls177 wrote:

>
> when i trim a file, i have this error "Invalid null command."
> i can do it with root, with shell ksh. but when i am switch to other
> user, i get the above error and that user shell is csh. the file
> belongs to the switch user.

That error message is from the shell layer of the onion. Conclusion
is you have a scripting error. Some variable expands to nothing in
csh that expands to something in ksh, some ksh function being used
that isn't implemented in csh, etc. Since you don't include either
the source code for the ksh and csh commands, nor do you include
the "-x" output, it is doubtfull folks will be of further help.
Post away with that further data.

[Barry Margolin]

In article <c06e4d68.0404272047.4a9d8b56@posting.google.com >,
[email]yls177@hotmail.com[/email] (yls177) wrote:

> when i trim a file, i have this error "Invalid null command."
> i can do it with root, with shell ksh. but when i am switch to other
> user, i get the above error and that user shell is csh. the file
> belongs to the switch user.

Are you trying to use the command:

> filename

That is valid syntax in shells based on Bourne shell syntax, but it's
not valid in C shell. Use:

cat /dev/null > filename

--
Barry Margolin, [email]barmar@alum.mit.edu[/email]
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

[Bill Marcum]

On 27 Apr 2004 21:47:30 -0700, yls177
<yls177@hotmail.com> wrote:

> when i trim a file, i have this error "Invalid null command."
> i can do it with root, with shell ksh. but when i am switch to other
> user, i get the above error and that user shell is csh. the file
> belongs to the switch user.
>
> any ideas?

How are you trimming the file? If you are using "> file", that is not a
valid csh command. You could do ": > file", or as root,
"> file; chown user file".

--
Giraffe: a ruminant with a view.

[yls177]

Bill Marcum <bmarcum@iglou.com.urgent> wrote in message news:<tps4m1-v9q.ln1@don.localnet>...

> On 27 Apr 2004 21:47:30 -0700, yls177
> <yls177@hotmail.com> wrote:

> > when i trim a file, i have this error "Invalid null command."
> > i can do it with root, with shell ksh. but when i am switch to other
> > user, i get the above error and that user shell is csh. the file
> > belongs to the switch user.
> >
> > any ideas?

>
> How are you trimming the file? If you are using "> file", that is not a
> valid csh command. You could do ": > file", or as root,
> "> file; chown user file".

yup.. i got the point.. thanks for replying.