exporting a command
 

hi,

i am trying to export a cmd from .bash_profile file. Am getting the output as expected , but the content format is changing from original. Don't know why ??

PFA for my work around.

Expected output like ..

[root@server ~]# echo $a
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin
adm:x:3:4:adm:/var/adm:/sbin/nologin
lp:x:4:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/sbin/nologin
sync:x:5:0:sync:/sbin:/bin/sync
shutdown:x:6:0:shutdown:/sbin:/sbin/shutdown
halt:x:7:0:halt:/sbin:/sbin/halt
mail:x:8:12:mail:/var/spool/mail:/sbin/nologin

Say a variable "CAT" exists in your bash profile file. It has the value of "cat".
I forgot to mention that in your sourced file you need to export the variable.

hi mralk3,

did as suggested, still getting same output.

What command are you trying to export? Please share or it is useless to help.
My apologies, I need to read in full.

You could probably use 'sed' or 'cut' to format it with new lines.

This should work. There really is no reason to make a exported variable with this.

Variable a is set correctly. You just need to quote it in the echo command to preserve that formatting:

BTW, you are not "exporting a command." When you runvariable a is set to the result of running that command. Subsequent changes in the content of /etc/passwd will not be reflected in the value of variable a. It's not clear what you intended.