from AIX and LINUX environments, running ashell version 5.0.997.7.
the "special" $ Variables do not seem to work properly when executing from cron

i have a do file that looks like this:
:<
Current date: $TD
Currnet day of week: $TW
>

when you run this command from the shell (or from an 'at' job):
# ashell -n -e tw.do

you get this (favorable) output:
"
Current date: 091123
Currnet day of week: 0
"

How-ever! when you enter the same command in a cron job, you get the following as output:
"
Current date: $TD
Currnet day of week: $TW
"

i ran a diff on the unix env variables:

notice, that the only difference is the 'from shell' side, includes terminal specific stuff like TERM=. otherwise, all unix variables are the same, including $PATH

< from shell
> from cron

###
< EXINIT=':set ignorecase'
< LOG=/vm/miame/dsk0/061075
< MAIL=/usr/spool/mail/root
---
> AUTHSTATE=compat
###
< PWD=/vm/miame/dsk0/002002
< RANDOM=22425
---
> PWD=/
> RANDOM=17758
###
< SSH_CLIENT='192.168.9.226 36694 22'
< SSH_CONNECTION='192.168.9.226 36694 192.168.9.65 22'
< SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
< TERM=xterm
---
> TERM=dumb

Interesting. The problem is even worse under 5.1, where your # ashell -n -e tw.do command file outputs $TD and $TW also, and even from the dot prompt, $TW is returning -1.

Let me investigate...

OK, here's the deal. The command name (program name) part of any command line typed at the dot prompt is folded to upper case (as in AMOS), simplifying the parsing logic which tries to determine whether the command is a LIT, RUN, command file, etc.

But at some some point in the distant past, we stopped folding the initial launch command line to allow passing of commands that referenced native files or other case-sensitive stuff. So, when "tw.do" was passed as an initial command on the launch command line, A-Shell was failing to recognize it as a DO file, so it wasn't getting the benefit of DO-file pre-processing (which is where $ variables get expanded).

Now that doesn't quite jibe with your claim that it works from the shell prompt, but perhaps you can go back and try it again, using TW.DO instead of tw.do to see if it then works in all cases.

I've inserted a fix into 5.1.1167 to make the test case insensitive, but I'm not sure if: a) it is a complete fix, or b) it will be worth it to you (or me) to update ashell 5.0 when the workaround is relatively simple.

So, let me know what you think.

you are the man.
that case sensitive stuff gets me every time.
thanks again jack.