So I am TRYING to make a bash file that rotates my MAC address every 10 minutes with a random hexadecimal number assigned each time. I would like to have a variable called random_hexa assigned to the result of this command: openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//'. I would then take the variable and use it later on in the script.
Any Idea how to take the result of the openssl command and assign it to a variable for later use?
Thanks!
Store the variable like so:
myVar=$(openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//')
Now $myVar can be used to refer to your number:
echo $myVar
$() runs the command inside the parenthesis in a subshell, which is then stored in the variable myVar. This is called command substitution.
You want "command substitution". The traditional syntax is
my_new_mac=`openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//'`
Bash also supports this syntax:
my_new_mac=$(openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//')
You can store the result of any command using the $() syntax like
random_hexa=$(openssl...)
