[SOLVED] executing sed's output

[luolimao]

I've been able to get the right output that I need from sed, but how can I execute the string that sed actually outputs?

[GNU-Fan]

If you use the "`" apostrophes, the output of the command will be executed.
You can also use xargs.

[theNbomr]

The 'apostrophes', usually referred to as 'backticks' are used by the shell to transform standard output into a commandline argument. Backticks have been deprecated in favor of the the $(command) format. Bash in most distros now supports this format.
Example:

echo "ls -la"
$(echo ls -la)

The first command simply emits the string "ls -la", while the second command actually invokes that command. Not an efficient way to use the feature, but does demonstrate the principle.

As GNU-Fan correctly points out, xargs can also be used, and is probably a better option if the result of your sed command can be a very long list of arguments.

man xargs

--- rod.

[luolimao]

thanks for the xargs suggestion; worked great!