Last Updated: August 01, 2022
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87.58K
· joseph

How to read a file into a variable in shell?

In cross-platform, lowest-common-denominator sh you use:

!/bin/sh

value=cat config.txt
echo "$value"

In bash or zsh, to read a whole file into a variable without invoking cat:

!/bin/bash

value=$(<config.txt)
echo "$value"