On Sun, 2004-01-11 at 10:45, Hans Müller wrote:
> Hello when i use the wc command i get many spaces.
> for example:
> [frank@homer dnetc483-linux-x86-elf]$ ls|wc -l
> 6
> [frank@homer dnetc483-linux-x86-elf]$
> but at all scipt saples the output are:
> [xxxx@xxx]$ ls|wc -l
> x
> [xxxx@xxx]$
> so i cannot use the output in a script. Who can help?
It's not a bug -- it's the way wc has worked since time immemorial.
Observe:
[bcs@phalanx bcs]$ ls | wc -l
126
[bcs@phalanx bcs]$ echo `ls | wc -l`
126
[bcs@phalanx bcs]$ if [ `ls | wc -l` == 126 ]; then echo "OK"; fi
OK
...basically, the shell commands will swallow the extra spaces.
--
Ben Steeves _ bcs@xxxxxxxxxx
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