How to take path from variable Bash

Question

I can't get path from variable in bash. How do it correct? For example:

my@PC:~$ a="~/.bashrc"
my@PC:~$ cat $a
cat: ~/.bashrc: No such file or directory

didn't work, but

cat .bashrc

and

cat ".bashrc"

Works well.

Here is right answer from fedorqui

cat $(eval echo $a)

You can try `cat $(eval echo $a)` – fedorqui Jul 25 '13 at 15:35 — fedorqui, Jul 25 '13 at 15:35
`eval` is *not* recommended. – chepner Jul 25 '13 at 16:11 — chepner, Jul 25 '13 at 16:11

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 25 '13 at 16:05

3

The reason for the issue is that the tilde is expanded to the home directory by the shell. When you store it in a variable, the tilde is not expanded and cat looks for a file .bashrc in the folder ~ (rather than your home directory)

There are two ways around the issue: the proposed eval, and using $HOME:

a="$HOME/.bashrc"

answered Jul 25 '13 at 16:05

SheetJS

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You could also use `a=~/".bashrc"` or even `a=~/.bashrc` -- as long as the `~` is outside the quotes it'll be expanded (unlike `$variable`, which is expanded even inside double-quotes). – Gordon Davisson Jul 25 '13 at 16:13

How to take path from variable Bash

1 Answers1