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I'd not consider this a good option. Whatever are OP's feelings towards useless use of cat, the OP's example is simple enough that most Bash users would understand it. It's also quite portable. Now $(<file) is a lot less common, so it might result in much more WTFs; and speed gain from this operation, if such configuration is to be loaded to a variable, is probably negligible

MatthewRock
– MatthewRock

2016-12-13 12:17:42 +00:00
Commented Dec 13, 2016 at 12:17
6

@MatthewRock note that a lot of very bad practices are common and familiar. The useless uses of cat are one example, for i in $(cat file); do ... is another. That they are common is no reason to keep using bad tools. Which is not to say that this particular use of cat is a bad tooi, I'm not sure if there's a more portable way. Just saying that common & familiar != good.

terdon
– terdon ♦

2016-12-13 12:55:06 +00:00
Commented Dec 13, 2016 at 12:55

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