Untitled

root@starchild:/tmp# cat fwlogsearch2.sh 
#!/bin/bash

# Searches FW logs on Linode, which are contained in /var/log/messages* files

        function search {
                local ip  #ip is local to the function
                echo "Searching... "
                echo " "
                grep "$ip" /var/log/messages*
                #cat /var/log/messages* | grep $ip
                wordcount=`grep -c "$ip" /var/log/messages*`
                #wordcount=`cat /var/log/messages* | grep $ip | wc -l`
                echo "The number of instances this IP shows in the logs is $wordcount "
        }
echo "Type in a number to search."
read number
value_returned=$(search $number)
echo    "$value_returned"