bash scripts conditionals and substrings

banging my head against the wall (despite what Craig Brooksby says, I am
not the smart one)

simple script...

#!/bin/sh

infile="/tmp/outfile.txt"
outfile="/tmp/default_user.php"

> $outfile

for i in `cat $infile`; \
do \
   if ${i:6:5} = "START"
      then printf $i >> $outfile
   else
      printf "if (!function_exists('_prefs_hook_$i')) { \n\n" >>
$outfile

fi
done

# head -n 4 /tmp/outfile.txt
**** START OF SECTION - horde - ****
default_identity
identities
identityselect

#### gives you the idea of what I'm working on...

What I am trying to do is see if line has "***** START ...
and if so, write it to the outfile
otherwise, write the other (else)

The else works fine but the IF evaluates as a local file and not the
value the 5 characters after the 6 offset and tries to execute it -
which of course generates a whole pile of standard error junk.

How do I do this in bash?

Craig

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