extracting a variable's value from a text file using bash

savio · 02-09-2016, 09:53 AM

I am using Linux and bash.
I have a simple text file like below:

Code:

VAR1=100
VAR2=5
VAR3=0
VAR4=99

I want to extract by means of bash the value of VAR2, that is 5.

How could I do that?

ahc_fan · 02-09-2016, 10:30 AM

Perhaps a combo of grep and cut commands:

Code:

grep 'VAR2' myfile | cut -f 2 -d '='

That extracts field 2 of the input with '=' as the delimiter

grail · 02-09-2016, 11:01 AM

Or you could just source the file and use the variable name ... assuming you know it in advance:

Code:

. myfile

echo "$VAR2"