Use of variable inside shell script

Question

a="hello" 
cat << EOF > abc.txt
Inside script $a
EOF

bash: hello command not found

I got this error when I try to use the a variable inside the script abc.txt file

Cannot reproduce. That code would not try to execute the value of $a as a command. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Jan 12, 2023 at 17:43
The error is saying that it did use the variable, but couldn't find the command with that name. — Scott Hunter
– Scott Hunter, Commented Jan 12, 2023 at 17:43

Ljm Dullaart · Accepted Answer · 2023-01-12 20:06:24Z

1

As @chepner said in the comments, you probably wrote

a= "hello"

instead of

a="hello"

You can see the result below:

$ a= "hello"
-bash: hello: command not found
$ a="hello"
$

You can always put an echo "______" before the cat, and then you will see where the error is (before or after the echo).

@Scott Hunter: The error is not saying that it did use the variable a. There is no reference at all to the variable a.

answered Jan 12, 2023 at 20:06

Ljm Dullaart

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