Revisions to How do I set a variable to the output of a command in Bash?

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edit approved Aug 26, 2024 at 16:01

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In addition to backticks `command`, command substitution can be done with $(command) or "$(command)", which I find easier to read, and allows for nesting.

OUTPUT=$OUTPUT="$(ls -1)" echo "${OUTPUT}" MULTILINE=$MULTILINE="$(ls \ -1)" echo "${MULTILINE}"

Quoting (") does matter to preserve multi-line variable values; and it is safer to use with whitespace and special characters such as (*) and therefore advised; it is, however, optional on the right-hand side of an assignment, as when word splitting is not performed, so OUTPUT=$(ls -1) would work fine.

In addition to backticks `command`, command substitution can be done with $(command) or "$(command)", which I find easier to read, and allows for nesting.

OUTPUT=$(ls -1) echo "${OUTPUT}" MULTILINE=$(ls \ -1) echo "${MULTILINE}"

Quoting (") does matter to preserve multi-line variable values; it is optional on the right-hand side of an assignment, as word splitting is not performed, so OUTPUT=$(ls -1) would work fine.

In addition to backticks `command`, command substitution can be done with $(command) or "$(command)", which I find easier to read, and allows for nesting.

OUTPUT="$(ls -1)" echo "${OUTPUT}" MULTILINE="$(ls \ -1)" echo "${MULTILINE}"

Quoting (") does matter to preserve multi-line variable values and it is safer to use with whitespace and special characters such as (*) and therefore advised; it is, however, optional on the right-hand side of an assignment when word splitting is not performed, so OUTPUT=$(ls -1) would work fine.

`OUTPUT=$(ls -1)` would work fine

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edit approved May 8, 2020 at 21:18

vstepaniuk

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In addition to backticks `command`, command substitution can be done with $(command) or "$(command)", which I find easier to read, and allows for nesting.

OUTPUT="$OUTPUT=$(ls -1)" echo "${OUTPUT}" MULTILINE=$(ls \ -1) echo "${MULTILINE}"

Quoting (") does matter to preserve multi-line values;multi-line variable values; it is optional on the right-hand side of an assignment, as word splitting is not performed, so OUTPUT=$(ls -1) would work fine.

In addition to backticks `command`, command substitution can be done with $(command) or "$(command)", which I find easier to read, and allows for nesting.

OUTPUT="$(ls -1)" echo "${OUTPUT}" MULTILINE=$(ls \ -1) echo "${MULTILINE}"

Quoting (") does matter to preserve multi-line values; it is optional on the right-hand side of an assignment, as word splitting is not performed, so OUTPUT=$(ls -1) would work fine.

In addition to backticks `command`, command substitution can be done with $(command) or "$(command)", which I find easier to read, and allows for nesting.

OUTPUT=$(ls -1) echo "${OUTPUT}" MULTILINE=$(ls \ -1) echo "${MULTILINE}"

Quoting (") does matter to preserve multi-line variable values; it is optional on the right-hand side of an assignment, as word splitting is not performed, so OUTPUT=$(ls -1) would work fine.

Use Markdown instead of HTML for inline backticks; point out that quoting on the RHS of an assignment is optional

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edited Apr 14, 2020 at 14:31

Benjamin W.

54k
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In addition to backticks `command`, command substitution can be done with $(command) or "$(command)", which I find easier to read, and allows for nesting.

OUTPUT="$(ls -1)" echo "${OUTPUT}" MULTILINE=$(ls \ -1) echo "${MULTILINE}"

Quoting (") does matter to preserve multi-line valuesvalues; it is optional on the right-hand side of an assignment, as word splitting is not performed, so OUTPUT=$(ls -1) would work fine.

In addition to backticks `command`, command substitution can be done with $(command) or "$(command)", which I find easier to read, and allows for nesting.

OUTPUT="$(ls -1)" echo "${OUTPUT}" MULTILINE=$(ls \ -1) echo "${MULTILINE}"

Quoting (") does matter to preserve multi-line values.

In addition to backticks `command`, command substitution can be done with $(command) or "$(command)", which I find easier to read, and allows for nesting.

OUTPUT="$(ls -1)" echo "${OUTPUT}" MULTILINE=$(ls \ -1) echo "${MULTILINE}"

Quoting (") does matter to preserve multi-line values; it is optional on the right-hand side of an assignment, as word splitting is not performed, so OUTPUT=$(ls -1) would work fine.