How can I read a file and redirect it to a variable?

Solution 1:

in several of a million ways...

simplest is probably

my_var=$(cat my_file)

If you use bash and you want to get spiffy you can use bash4's mapfile, which puts an entire file into an array variable, one line per cell

mapfile my_var < my_file

The simplest way is probably:

var=$(< file)

which doesn't create a new process.

I think the easiest way is something like

$ myvar=`cat file`

var="`cat /path/to/file`"

This is the simple way. Be careful with newlines in the file.

var="`head -1 /path/to/file`"

This will only get the first line and will never include a newline.