shift command?

[Edgar Allen]

Forwarded message:
>
>I was planning on repeating this loop about 15 times for the machines on the
>LAN, as well as about 10 more for routers out on the frame.  I had a thought
>(dangerous as it may be,) and was wondering if could specify multiple
>machine names to the variable the first time through as follows:
>
>BOX=box1 box2 box3 box4 ...
>
>and then use the shift command at the bottom of the code block somewhere,
>which would then start the loop using the next machine name?  Is this even
>possible or am I way out there?
>
    It seems like doing things the hard way to me.

    Why build a loop using 'shift' to iterate across a list when
    such a loop structure already exists ?

    I reccommend using a 'for' loop instead.
>
>
>Psuedo code for the script is as follows.

#!/bin/bash
# Check for machines still reachable
delay=0
for mach in box1 box2 box{3,4,5,6,7,8}
do
    ping -c 1 $mach
    #check exit status of command
    # Doing nothing if it is reachable is reasonable
    if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then
	echo $mach is not responding
	#mail all is not good
	delay=300
    fi
done
# Five minute delay if mail was sent, otherwise none
sleep $delay
# rerun the poll of all boxes
exec $0