background foreach in csh or for in sh?

[Gary Weimer 588-0953]

In article <1991Mar25.231824.9992 at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>,
phil at ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Phil Howard KA9WGN) writes:
|> Is it that complicated to run a new shell?  I assume you are using csh.
|> Use the "-f" option to supress ".cshrc" execution for faster startup of
|> the subshell.
|> 
|> echo 'foreach number ( 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 )\
|> echo the number is $number\
|> end' | csh -f &

I use this so often, that I've written an alias for it:

alias loop      '(echo foreach x\(\!:1\);echo \!:2*;echo end)|csh -f &'

To use the alias:

loop '0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9' 'echo the number is $x'

(Note that the loop variable is always $x)
If you don't use the single quotes, you will have to escape $, *, etc.
I often use this on my server for more complicated things like:

loop '/export/root/*/etc' 'mv $x/printcap $x/printcap.orig; cp
    /etc/printcap $x/printcap'
(should be all one line)

This will install the server's new /etc/printcap file on all it's clients.

weimer at ssd.kodak.com ( Gary Weimer )