On 03/24/2010 04:48 AM, Roland RoLaNd wrote: > > hello, > > i've just wrote the following : > > more ./*.csv | grep -i XXX | echo "Dear XXX, This email is for informative purposes. Your total number of hours for the week of `date` is: `cut -d, -f2` hours Kindly note that the average weekly working hours is : 40." | /usr/sbin/sendEmail -t mail at domain.com -u Test email- disregard it -f othermail at subdomain.com -s smtp.domain.com:25 > > this looks in a csv file that exists in the same directory for XX and outputs the field right next to it as you notice from : `cut -d, -f2` > > It's working pretty fine for just one user, but i have to do the same for 432 person. and its obviously not as professional as it should be due to the following reasons: > > 1. i have to fill the name for each person in place of XXX as well as their MAIL at domain.com > 2. the date command gives the hour as well which is a bit annoying > > > can anyone guide me on how to proceed? > as you notice im a bit of a newbie with bash and im trying my best to improve my one liners/scripts > How about: for i in *.csv do HOURS=`cat $i | cut -d, -f2` USER=`cat $i | cut -d, -f<user name field>` DATE=`date <plus formatting options>` echo "Dear $USER, This email...for week of $DATE is: $HOURS ..." done The <text> portions are bits you will need to change for your environment. You can also put this in a file and script it instead of having to type it out every time. To be more specific we would need to know if there is just one .csv file or one file per user and the format of each line. John