> A ":" on it's own will do what you want. > > if [ "$remaining" = "" ] > then > : > else > kill -9 $remaining > fi > > But better would be > > if [ -n "$remaining" ] > then > kill -9 $remaining > fi > > thanks to all for the suggestions _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@xxxxxxxxxx http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos