#!/bin/sh -u
#
#     $0 [ args... ]
#
# A script that word counts its arguments and lists them in reverse
# sorted order.  If given no arguments, it operates on STDIN (just as do
# most Unix commands!).
#
# WARNING: Many of the comments in this file are "Instructor-Type"
#   comments and are *not* appropriate for real scripts.  Do not put
#   "Instructor-Type" comments into the scripts that you submit for marking.
#   I put them in my example files because I am teaching you how to
#   write scripts; do not submit my teaching comments back to me again.
#   Read the week7.txt notes for more details on good comment style.
#
# -IAN! idallen@ncf.ca
# Jun 12 2001

# All scripts must start with lines similar to these two:
#
export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin
umask 022

# The "$@" syntax is treated specially by the Shell - see the text.
# Note how the error message is written to Standard Error using "1>&2".
# The error message includes the name of this script, the command exit
# status, and the arguments that caused the error.
# Only the status of last command in a pipeline is available; errors
# seen by "wc" will not be detected.  (This is unfortunate, since it
# is "wc" that will detect 99% of the errors in the arguments!)
#
if wc "$@" | sort -nr ; then
	status=0    # it worked
else
	status=$?   # save the bad status return code
	echo 1>&2 "$0: The sort of '$*' didn't work: status $status"
fi

exit $status