Unofficial Scripting Guidelines on CCN 1. Check to see what scripts are available before you write one. :D* If you re-invent the wheel, you're just wasting both your and our time. :) 2. Don't use perl. 3. Comment the obfuscated pieces in your script. It's very easy for us to judge a script that we can't understand. ( > /dev/null ). 4. Don't even use the word "perl". :D* 5. If at all possible, use bash as the shell. And if you know how, ensure all strings that are sent to the screen are subject to language translation. (i.e. all double-quoted strings preceded by $) 6. You can make use of almost all the standard shell programs, as well as system programs. (Brownie points if you use gawk. :D*) Obviously, some programs should not be used in your script, (login and chown root come to mind), but use your own judgement. 7. Security and privacy are important. Check and double check your script for ways to access things you shouldn't. 8. Include a description, (not in the script itself!) with the code. Explain what it does, why it does it, how it goes about doing it, why it's necessary, etc... 9. Don't bother writing scripts for any of the services we do not support. (ie IRC) As in guideline #1, you'll just be wasting both your and our time. 10. The script should be something useful to everyone, not just the writer. For reasons that should be obvious, CCN does not allow users to write and execute their own scripts. I doubt that we ever will. 11. If all you want to do execute a number of normal CCN commands, may I suggest that a macro in your favorite term program might be your best bet. When you're finished editing your script: egrep "perl" !$ >/dev/null && echo "bzzz, try again" && rm -f !$ -- James Fifield CCN Technical Staff