Linux and Unix Shell Programming

Chapter 25. Going further with here documents

We have already met here (redirection) documents a few times when we dealt with standard input and output and while loops. We learnt how to send mail and how to construct a menu screen, but there are also other uses for here documents.

In this chapter we will cover:

• creating a quick file;

• automatically navigating menus;

• ftp transfers; and

• connecting to other application systems.

The format for a here document is:

command <<word text word 

To recap on here documents, this is how they work. When the shell sees the <<,it knows the next word is a delimiter (word). Anything after the word it treats as input until it sees the word again on a line by itself. The delimiter word can be any word you like.

You ...