Getting a Perl command output into a shell variable

Question

I'm a bit of a noob with Perl, and can't to see what's wrong with this script:

#!/bin/sh
randAnPass=true;
if [ $randAnPass = true ]
then
pass=perl /root/bin/randpass
else
# prompt for setting user's password ..
echo -n "pick password for '${user}': "
read pass
fi
#echo $randAnPass;
echo "Generated pass = $pass";

For some reason it outputs:

r4Nd0mP
Generated pass =

I want it to output

Generated pass = r4Nd0mP

Use backticks to capture command output, you're just running the command. — Dave Newton, Feb 26 '12 at 01:30
I don't see how it can be *much* better, but sure, that works too. — Dave Newton, Feb 26 '12 at 01:32
That worked :D probably should've been an answer lol cause.. well it is the answer :P. Thanks very much. :) — Goulash, Feb 26 '12 at 01:33
@DaveNewton - I am not sure of the benefits, so I asked :) http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9449778/what-is-the-benefit-of-using-instead-of-backticks-in-bash — DVK, Feb 26 '12 at 01:38
@dvk I think backticks screw up more, but for simple usecases, I'll be interested to see if I should care-thanks for asking. — Dave Newton, Feb 26 '12 at 01:40
@Dave - my suspicions were correct, the only margin in usage is nesting which requires evil-looking escaping for backticks — DVK, Feb 26 '12 at 02:27

Shiplu Mokaddim · Answer 1 · 2012-02-26T09:48:48.493

5

If you want to just capture STDOUT of perl command use,

pass=$(perl /root/bin/randpass)

But if you need to capture both STDERR and STDOUT,

pass=$(perl /root/bin/randpass 2>&1)

edited Feb 26 '12 at 09:48

answered Feb 26 '12 at 01:41

Shiplu Mokaddim

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score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 26 '12 at 01:33

4

pass=`perl /root/bin/randpass`

answered Feb 26 '12 at 01:33

DVK

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Getting a Perl command output into a shell variable

2 Answers2