Binarus wrote: > The script > > echo 'line1' > file > echo 'line2' >> file > RESULT=$(cat file) > echo "$RESULT" > > gives the following output: > > line1 > line2 > > I don't understand why: the command substitution $(cat file) is not > within double quotes, so word splitting should be applied to the > result of the substitution and any embedded newlines should be > removed. Thus, $RESULT should contain text without newlines after line > three in the above script is executed.
Word splitting does not happen in variable assignment. So RESULT=$(cat file) puts literally line1 line2 in RESULT. When you later do echo "$RESULT", quoting the variable preserves its value.
