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Old 05-17-2009, 01:04 PM   #1
cynicalpsycho
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quick newb question


I know that >> appends to the bottom of a file...
but what does << do?
I've searched google, and found that google ignores special characters, and there're no entries in the man file or help files, that i could find...
 
Old 05-17-2009, 01:11 PM   #2
forrestt
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It sends the file on the right of the << as the input for the command.

HTH

Forrest
 
Old 05-17-2009, 01:26 PM   #3
cynicalpsycho
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Quote:
Originally Posted by forrestt View Post
It sends the file on the right of the << as the input for the command.

HTH

Forrest
could you elaborate with an example?
 
Old 05-17-2009, 01:29 PM   #4
Disillusionist
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There are three standard file handles that you need to know about

stdin 0
stdout 1
stderr 2

Commands take input from stdin, send normal output to stdout and send error messages to stderr

< file sends the contents of file into stdin to be used by command xyz
<< file reads lines of input from the keyboard, until the message "file" is given.

> file or 1> file redirects the normal output to file (replacing the previous content if the file exists)
>> file or 1>> file redirects normal output to file (appending to the end of the file)

2> file redirects the error messages to file (replacing the previous content if the file exists)
2>> file redirects the error messages to file (appending to the end of the file)

2>&1 redirects the error messages to the address for stdout

Last edited by Disillusionist; 05-17-2009 at 01:39 PM. Reason: Correction
 
Old 05-17-2009, 01:45 PM   #5
Disillusionist
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cynicalpsycho View Post
could you elaborate with an example?
Code:
cat << EOF
This is an example of the use of <<

The input is read until you reach a line that just contains EOF.

It could be anything, but typically EOF is used ;)
EOF
 
Old 05-17-2009, 02:49 PM   #6
colucix
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The example from Disillusionist is a so-called "here document". If you want to fed a command with a simple string you can use a "here string" using the triple input redirection:
Code:
grep example <<< "A simple example"
 
  


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