Korn Shell: Unix and Linux Programming Manual, Third Edition, The

Command Substitution

Command substitution is a feature that allows output to be expanded from a command. It can be used to assign the output of a command to a variable, or to imbed the output of a command within another command. The format for command substitution is:

					$(command)
				

where command is executed and the output is substituted for the entire $(command) construct. For example, to print the current date in a friendly format:

					$ echo The date is $(date)
					The date is Fri Jul 27 10:41:21 PST 1996
				

or see who is logged on:

					$ echo $(who —q) are logged on now
					root anatole are logged on now
				

Any commands can be used inside $(...), including pipes, I/O operators, metacharacters (wildcards), and more. We can find out how many users are logged ...