On 10/10/15 11:01 PM, Linda Walsh wrote:
>> a= read a <<< x;echo $?
> 0
>> declare -p a
> declare -- a="x"
> # the manpage claims "one line is read from [the input], and the result
> # is split by words and assigns 1st word to 1st var and so forth, but
> # apparently the reading of 1 line is optional -- though this is consistent
> # with the fact that read can be told to read some number of characters
> and # return when the limit is reached. So technically, read doesn't
> "read one line",
> # but read whatever is on 'input' up to 1 line. (DOC clarification?)
This is terribly wrong.
The command in question is `a= read a <<< x'.
The here-string construct takes the following word and, like a here
document, makes it the standard input to the command. The standard
input is then a file consisting of a single line: x\n.
It's basically shorthand for
read a <<EOF
x
EOF
So, `read' reads the single line from its standard input and assigns it
to the variable `a'.
--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU c...@case.edu http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/
