this is the last one :-)

right, one last problem, all i need to know is how i can put the results of these two lines joined together into one variable.

{printf("%s",userv)} {printf("basename %s",$2) | "sh"}

so for example, if userv was "auserpath/" and the result of the basename command was "afile" how do i join these together with a variable (lets called it var1), so when echo $var1 is performed the shell prints out the line "auserpath/afile"

This is the last thing i'm going to be hastling with :)

thanks.

P.S: similar problem! i need to add the result of the same basename command to the result of pwd, it'd be good if u explain this too. many thanks.