return code before grep
In my previous post hide-password-from-ps-output-sql-loader I mentioned a way to pass the password to the loader thru a parameter file. As correctly suggested by Brian Tkatch, the password could be passed as standard input
sqlldr control=x.ctl silent=header,feedback <<EOF
scott/tiger
EOF
Username:The Username: prompt is displayed 
How do we get rid of this ?
sqlldr control=x.ctl silent=header,feedback <<EOF | grep -v "^Username:"
scott/tiger
EOFThere is no output. But what’s the error code
echo $?
1The return code is 1
This is not the error code from sqlldr, but the error code from grep !
Ok, here is the trick, a bit cryptic if you are not familiar with file descriptors
( ( (sqlldr control=x <<EOF;echo $? >&3) |grep -v "^Username:" >&4 ) 3>&1 |(read x;exit $x) )4>&1
scott/tiger
EOF
echo $?
0
The return code is 0 
Good post!
Hi Laurent,
You can also store the user/password in a file with 700 permissions (only the owner can read it), and pipe it directly into the sign-ons . . .
Yes, that is very true, but the file may be backup up and kept in unsafe place, you never know
Standard input is still safer as not saved to a filesystem
I’m a bit confused as to what exactly should go in the calling script here? I see mismatched parentheses in the example. Am I missing something?
Nevermind…it looks like chrome doesn’t properly wrap the text.
@Frank : due to EOF, it must be on one line…
try this