tee expand new line characters (\n)

Question

really simple question but I can't seem to Google it. I want to tee a HEREDOC into a file and expand new lines from the variable.

user@host:~$ NEWLINEVAR="foo\nbar"
user@host:~$ tee -a > /dev/null filename <<HEREDOC
${NEWLINEVAR}
HEREDOC

Current result:

user@host:~$ cat filename 
foo\nbar

Wanted result:

user@host:~$ cat filename 
foo
bar

EDIT: I oversimplified my question. Edited above so it's using the HEREDOC implementation I need an answer for.

Thanks @Inian I found the solution in there. I'll mark the question as a duplicate. — Neekoy, Jul 06 '18 at 09:03

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 06 '18 at 08:48

6

Try

echo -e ${NEWLINEVAR} | tee -a filename

The -e option tells echo to expand escape sequences.

answered Jul 06 '18 at 08:48

Jon

Ah I oversimplified the question. I upvoted because you answered what I asked, but I'm actually using HEREDOC. I edited the OP to reflect the situation. – Neekoy Jul 06 '18 at 08:50

1 Answers1