linux shell program problem plz

madhugp · 12-24-2006, 09:13 AM

hi, in shell program,
how to mix up message with a command result.

i.e i want to get the following line.

echo "copying xyz file size 50m"

here 50m is the size of the file
comes from ls -sh xyz command.
how to mixup these two into single line.
thanks

Nylex · 12-24-2006, 09:20 AM

Put the command you're using between backticks, e.g.

echo "copying xyz file size `ls -sh xyz`".

wmakowski · 12-24-2006, 07:58 PM

Just to expand on what Nylex mentioned. This is called command substitution and there are two forms `command` or $(command). Both work equally well. If you have to nest commands it is a little easier to use the second form. I like the second one a little more because I can see it easier in the script. It's just a preference thing.

Bill

madhugp · 12-25-2006, 10:22 AM

I used, echo " copying file 'ls -sh xyz'"

but is displaying the same above , but not
ls -sh command result.

plz help

Quote:

Originally Posted by wmakowski

Just to expand on what Nylex mentioned. This is called command substitution and there are two forms `command` or $(command). Both work equally well. If you have to nest commands it is a little easier to use the second form. I like the second one a little more because I can see it easier in the script. It's just a preference thing.

Bill

whk · 12-25-2006, 10:53 AM

It's the back tick. The upper left button with the tilde(~) and grave accent ( ˋ )
and not the single quote(').

However, this is another work around:
echo; echo -n "copying file size "; echo `ls -sh xyz.sh`; echo

hth