You were very close for not finding the info in a man page. If I can assume you are using the bash shell, then the 'if' command is described somewhere in the midst of the bash man page (it's a _big_ man page, but lots of good stuff is in there). I suppose you want to use the output of a command in a comparison. This means that the command should be enclosed in accent marks. Also, you need some brackets, a semicolon, and the word 'then' to complete the syntax. Here is what I think you want (note that the spacing around the brackets is important, as well as all of the punctuation in the 'if' line): if [ `date -r $file +%V` -lt $number ]; then echo It be. else echo It be not. fi HTH, and have a _great_ day. On Sat, Apr 22, 2006 at 07:59:24PM +0100, Chris Norman wrote: > Hi people, > I want to use the if command, but can't find any manual page for it. > > I want to use it to run a command, and at present, I have: > > if date -r $file +%V -lt $number; then > #statements > fi > > But it won't work. > > $file is a filename. How do I do this? > > Cheers, > > Chris Norman > <!-- chris.norman4 at ntlworld.com --> > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup -- Ralph. N6BNO. Wisdom comes from central processing, not from I/O. rreid at sunset.net http://personalweb.sunset.net/~rreid ...passing through The City of Internet at the speed of light! 1 = x^0
