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BlueSkies
Asked: 2019-11-22 07:15:01 +0800 CST

How to assign a value to a variable in Terminal?

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In Terminal, how can I set a new variable and assign a value to it? Let's say I want to compare two files with long file names and then also perform some other operations. Because of the long file names I'd like to create two variables, assign value to each variable and use it as place-holder. I need something like the following:

set var1 = 'long-file-name1'
set var2 = 'long-file-name2'
diff var1 var2
command-line

2 Answers

  1. The pseudocode (or code for some other shell or programming language) in your question translates to the following Bash commands:

    var1='long-file-name1'
var2='long-file-name2'
diff "$var1" "$var2"

    The syntax $var1 is parameter expansion. This replaces the variable var1 with its value--in this case, with the filename stored in it. Unquoted parameter expansion triggers word splitting (also called "field splitting") and globbing (also called "filename expansion" and "pathname expansion"). Usually you don't want those further expansions to occur. Except when you specifically know you want them, you should make sure to enclose all occurrences of parameter expansion in double quotes. (Single quotes are even more powerful--they would prevent parameter expansion from happening, too.)

    That runs the diff command with the filename stored in var1 passed as its first command-line argument and the filename stored in var2 passed as its second command-line argument. This causes diff to compare the contents of the files, as you intend, just as it would if you had run:

    diff 'long-file-name-1' 'long-file-name-2'

    You will notice that I have not used the export command. That's because, in this case, the export command is neither necessary nor appropriate for what you are doing. When the value of a variable only needs to be expanded in your shell--and not accessed by programs started from your shell--then you do not need to (and should not) use export.

    If your system had a strange diff command that read filenames from environment variables called var1 and var2 rather than taking filenames as command-line arguments, then you would need to export your variables. But that's not how diff works. The diff command is not accessing--and does not know anything about--your variables. The shell is expanding them to produce the arguments it then passes to diff.

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  2. Best Answer

    You can store the file name in a variable in bash simply by assigning it

    For example:variable=filename && variable2=filename2

    you can then diff the two files using those variables like this diff $variable $variable2

    NB:if your filenames have spaces it is best to double quote both the filenames and the variables especially when performing operations with them

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