Home / server / Questions / 267693
Accepted
Rich
Asked: 2011-05-10 03:58:00 +0800 CST

Creating a text file with no newline at the end of it

  • 772

I am using ldapsearch with its -y option where the password for the ldap server is read in from a file in order to ensure that the password is not left in the command history.

ldapsearch requires that the password be in a file with no newlines. The only way I am aware of for doing this is:

echo -n "myreallysecretpassword" > /path/to/password.txt

but obviously that puts the password in the command history, which is what I'm trying to avoid.

I assume there's a better way, could someone point me in the right direction?

text

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Create the file however you want and just printf it without newline.

    cat pw.txt | awk '{printf $1 }'

    or

    printf `cat pw.txt`
    • 4

  2. You can use read to input an intermediate variable semi-securely:

    read -s tempvar # enter your password and press enter - it will not echo back
echo -n $tempvar > pw.txt
unset tempvar

    Of course if you're worried mostly about the command history you can disable it in bash like this:

    export HISTFILE=
    • 2