bash question

[Steven W. Orr]

On Mon, 23 Sep 2002, Thomas M. Albright wrote:

=>I don't have any of my bash scripting books handy so I figured I'd ask
=>here: I have a script that checks due dates. I use `date +%j` to convert
=>both today and the date due into day of year. (eg - today is 266) I then
=>subtract today from the due date.
=>
=>If the due date is greater than today, it outputs the message "Due in x
=>days." If the due date is less than today I get a message saying "You
=>are -x days past due." How can I convert the negative number into a
=>positive one in bash?
daysPastDue=$((daysPastDue * -1))

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