How to assign the output of a Bash command to a variable? [duplicate]

I have a problem putting the content of pwd command into a shell variable that I'll use later.

Here is my shell code (the loop doesn't stop):

#!/bin/bash
pwd= `pwd`
until [ $pwd = "/" ]
    do
        echo $pwd
        ls && cd .. && ls 
        $pwd= `pwd` 
    done

Could you spot my mistake, please?

Solution 1:

Try:

pwd=`pwd`

or

pwd=$(pwd)

Notice no spaces after the equals sign.

Also as Mr. Weiss points out; you don't assign to $pwd, you assign to pwd.

Solution 2:

In shell you assign to a variable without the dollar-sign:

TEST=`pwd`
echo $TEST

that's better (and can be nested) but is not as portable as the backtics:

TEST=$(pwd)
echo $TEST

Always remember: the dollar-sign is only used when reading a variable.