Assigning file contents to variable

**benjdozier** · 08-30-2004

In a script using bash, I would like to assign the contents of a file to a variable. How can I do this in a simple manner?

**kyku** · 08-30-2004

For example by:

Code:

varname=`cat file.txt`

note, there are no spaces around assignment and I'm using backstics (below tilde char) to execute cat file.txt and return its output.

**benjdozier** · 08-31-2004

Thanks, kyku. I had seen this solution before but just assumed that the backsticks were single quotes italicized.

**kyku** · 09-01-2004

As an end matter, there's a clearer solution: $(progname arg1 arg2 ... argn)