In the process of writing a script which I would like to count the  
number matched patterns (command line parameters).
The issue I am running into using grep is that the string has a dash  
in front, and it throws an error.
E.g:
./script -test
PATTERN=$1
egrep -ic $PATTERN --> egrep: invalid option -- 't'
awk and egrep work using a file, but not on a variable:
EXAMPLE=`awk '/test/ { nlines++ } {print nlines}' $PATTERN`
awk: cmd. line:1: fatal: cannot open file `-test' for reading (No such  
file or directory)
I know using and if command works, so am I just over doing it? What am  
I doing wrong?
if [[ $PATTERN == "-test" ]; then
Thanks in advanced!
Saul David Alanis