> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> 
> Hi, I am writing a small script that reads a number from a 
> file, increments it with one and writes it back to the file.

One way to do this that doesn't rely on having the variable pre-set nor on INPUT redirection is as follows:

  1) create a file called "setseq" [setsequence] that contains the line:

   setvar count 0

  2) when you need this number in a job, execute the "command file"

  3) to increment the value, issue this command:

   :echo setvar count ![count+1] > setseq

note that this also avoids any string-to-number conversion problems [unexpected character in number]

note also that the ![] syntax here is actually optional -- when supplied as shown, the command file gets re-written as 

   setvar count 1

if you don't supply the square brackets, the file is written as 

   setvar count 0+1

which is OK because when you EXECUTE the command file, it EVALUATES "0+1" as 1 anyway!

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