7.2.4. Command substitutionΒΆ
The output of a command can be saved in a variable. This is done by
enclosing the command between $(
and )
1:
variable=$(command)
Some examples:
thisdir=$(pwd) # sets thisdir to the output of the command pwd
c=$(ls | grep -c ".html$") # set c to the number of html-files (ending in .html) in
# this directory
c=$(ls *.html) # sets c to the list of html-files
- 1
There is an older form that is still quite in use, where the command is enclosed in backticks (
`
), rhe first example becomes then:thisdir=`pwd`