Korn Shell Programming by Example

Syntax Checking

Before you take a look at some of the debugging options, let's review the three primary ways to execute a script. Scripts can be run in a subshell, run in the context of the current shell, or a separate ksh command can be issued to customize the debugging environment.

From a debugging perspective, you can present options to the ksh command specifying debugging options such as -v or -x. This technique creates a new process running ksh, and that shell creates another process running ksh with your script as stdin.

The trick is that the ksh command can be used as a standalone command requesting the creation of a process running ksh. This might be used in the case of a hapless C shell user who is stuck in a company steeped in the culture ...