Korn Shell, won't read file without cp?

Question

To display text from a file do you have to use the command CP.

In my first snippet this is what worked fine:

#!/bin/ksh
#

count=$# #number of arguments

echo "Please enter filename to open:"
read file
cp $file temp
cat temp
echo "bye"

If i tried this command it doesn't work:

#!/bin/ksh
#

count=$# #number of arguments

echo "Please enter filename to open:"
read temp
#cp $file temp
cat temp
echo "bye"

It simply can't pick up the file in the second example. Does CP really need to be used?

Answer 1

 cat temp

Tries to read a file called temp.

To read the file pointed to by the variable temp, use:

  cat $temp

You already do this correctly in your first example when you reference the variable file using $file.