Hi there,

How can I get the contents of a file into a variable, newlines
included. I've tried

$ cat test.txt
Hello
World
File
$ myvar=`cat test.txt`
$ echo $myvar
Hello World File

cat alone will display the file, newlines included, but using
backticks and assigning the output to a variable strips the newline
characters ?!

Thanks in advance,
C

Garhone wrote:

> $ myvar=`cat test.txt`
> $ echo $myvar

Use
myvar="$(cat test.txt)"
echo "${myvar}"

Cheers,

--
Klaus Alexander Seistrup
http://klaus.seistrup.dk/

On 17 May 2007 10:32:41 -0700, garhone
<cacheung@consumercontact.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi there,
>
> How can I get the contents of a file into a variable, newlines
> included. I've tried
>
> $ cat test.txt
> Hello
> World
> File
> $ myvar=`cat test.txt`
> $ echo $myvar
> Hello World File
>
> cat alone will display the file, newlines included, but using
> backticks and assigning the output to a variable strips the newline
> characters ?!
>
echo "$myvar"


--
I watch television because you don't know what it will do if you leave it
in the room alone.

In news:1179423161.812555.282340@o5g2000hsb.googlegro ups.com,
garhone <cacheung@consumercontact.com> wrote:

> $ myvar=`cat test.txt`
> $ echo $myvar
> Hello World File

echo "${myvar}"

On 2007-05-17, garhone wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> How can I get the contents of a file into a variable, newlines
> included. I've tried
>
> $ cat test.txt
> Hello
> World
> File
> $ myvar=`cat test.txt`
> $ echo $myvar
> Hello World File
>
> cat alone will display the file, newlines included, but using
> backticks and assigning the output to a variable strips the newline
> characters ?!

Echo prints its arguments separated by spaces. To preserve the
newlines, quote the variable:

echo "$myvar"

Or, better:

printf "%s\n" "$myvar"


Note, however, that command substition removes trailing newlines.
Do this to preserve them:

myvar=`cat test.txt; echo .`
myvar=${myvar%.}

--
Chris F.A. Johnson, author <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/shell/>
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)
===== My code in this post, if any, assumes the POSIX locale
===== and is released under the GNU General Public Licence

garhone wrote:

[...]

> $ echo $myvar

use instead this:

echo "${myvar}"

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