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Jovin Miranda
Asked: 2019-07-28 18:37:59 +0800 CST

Trying to enter a directory from the first line of another file

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Currently using csh at workplace.

So what i currently have is a path stored in the first line of a file and i am trying to read that.

head -n 1 jvar.txt

Now i have to go to that path so i was trying to store this in a variable

set a = head -n 1 jvar.txt

but its not able to store it in sayin Illegal variable name. The idea was to then do cd $a and go to that path. is there any way i can store it to something so i can cd to that path.

command-line csh

1 Answers

  1. To capture the output of the head command into a string that you can assign to a variable, you need command substitution.

    In csh, that is done by enclosing the command in backticks:

    set a = `head -1 jvar.txt`        # csh

    The backtick syntax also works in bash, but is deprecated in favour of $(...). Also note that in bash and similar Bourne/Korn derived shells, it is an error to include whitespace around the = operator:

    a=$(head -1 jvar.txt)             # bash, ksh, sh etc.
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