How to write a multiline string to a file in Bash

Question

I want to rewrite a configuration file when asked from a bash script. Here is my code.

function quality {
    echo $1 > ~/.livestreamerrc
    echo ".livestreamer was modified!"
}

best="stream-types=hls
hls-segment-threads=4
default-stream=best
player=vlc --cache 5000"

read -p "Set quality: " INPUT
if [[ "$INPUT" == "!best" ]]; then
  quality $best
fi

This code does the following to .livestreamer file though.

$cat ~/.livestreamerrc
stream-types=hls

Why?

isn't it a problem with quotes? If you have `var="hello world i am here"` and then `echo $var`, the format is lost; instead, `echo "$var"` works well. — fedorqui, Aug 24 '16 at 14:13

sjsam · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-24T14:24:01.437

3

Change it to

quality "$best" # double quotes to avoid word splitting

and then

echo "$1" > ~/.livestreamerrc

^{Note : Worth checking the [ shellcheck ] documentation.Also, fully uppercase variables like INPUT are reserved for the system.}

edited Aug 24 '16 at 14:24

answered Aug 24 '16 at 14:15

sjsam

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How to write a multiline string to a file in Bash

1 Answers1