-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 According to Saran on 8/11/2005 4:43 AM: > To whom so ever it may concern.. > > Hi, > I find that the expr command in my linux shell is not working for multiplying > two arguments. please help me out how could i multiply two numbers in a shell > and how could i use the command in my shell scripts.. > when i type expr 2 * 3 it is giving syntax error. > whereas if i type expr 2 + 3 it is giving me the correct result '5'.
This is turning into a FAQ; although the FAQ page at http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/coreutils-faq.html doesn't mention expr by name, it does mention problems with * as a shell metacharacter, which needs to be quoted. Try "echo expr 2 * 3" to see what you are really doing. And compare that to "echo expr 2 \* 3". - -- Life is short - so eat dessert first! Eric Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (Cygwin) Comment: Public key at home.comcast.net/~ericblake/eblake.gpg Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFC+0/g84KuGfSFAYARAuZRAJ9DooJLmd0kf2igT2kCDUUblsrkxwCeLy8J ns7moJ6uG53FvYoe0cUKGmU= =ni7b -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Bug-coreutils mailing list Bug-coreutils@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils
