Bash basics

Bash certainly has its set of snafus.

• To store commands in variables:

# NOTE don't put spaces around equals sign!
# NOTE don't use ampersands within command strings, they won't work
# use a blank command if needed, that's fine
mycmd1="command param param"
mycmd2="cmd2 param"
if [ -e /myspecialplace ]
mycmd2=""
fi
mycmd3="cmd3 param"
$mycmd1 && $mycmd2 && $mycmd3

• To capture output

myout=`program1 param`;