On Sat, Oct 30, 2004 at 09:48:28AM +0200, Steffen Lund Hokland wrote: : : I'm writing a bash script and needed something along the lines of: : : `expr index $somestring somepattern` : : for parsing a text string. This is described in: : 'Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide: An in-depth exploration of the art of : shell scripting' version 2.7.7. However when running the command above : i get an error: : : expr: syntax error I'm not familiar with this use of expr(1). It doesn't appear to be a built-in bash command. For strings, the only use I know of is: $ expr expression1 : expression2 For example: $ expr foo : '.*' 3 $ expr /usr/X11R6/bin/xbiff : '.*/\(.*\)' xbiff -- Eugene Lee http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/