How to assign diff result to a variable in bash script

[fang]

Hi Guys,

I'm writing a bash script and need to assign the result of diff to a variable.

diff -u file1 file2

I've tried stuff like

var=${diff -u $file1 $file2} where file1 and file2 are variable holding filenames and get an error "bad substitution". I've also tried putting the $file1 and $file2 in quotes along with several other variations. Same error.

What is the correct syntax?

Thanks...

[Irithori]

var=$(diff -u $file1 $file2)

[cfajohnson]

var=$(diff -u $file1 $file2)

That will fail if either filename contains whitespace or other pathological characters. Quote the variables:

var=$(diff -u "$file1" "$file2")