Learning Linux Shell Scripting - Second Edition

Command substitution

On a keyboard, there is one interesting key, the backward quote, `. This key is normally situated below the Esc key. If we place text between two successive backquotes, then echo will execute those as commands instead of processing them as plain text.

Alternate syntax for $(command) is the backtick character `, which we can see as follows:

    $(command) or `command`

For example:

• We need to use proper double quotes, as follows:

    $ echo "Hello, whoami"  

• The next command will print the text as it is; such as Hello, whoami:

    Hello, whoami

• Use proper double quotes and single backquotes:

    $ echo "Hello, `whoami`."
    Hello, student

• When we enclose whoami text in the ` characters, the same text that was printed as plain text ...