Reading asterisk character (*) from a file in bash

Question

I am taking lines from a .txt file: Say Input.txt

a
*
b

Then I am reading it with:

#!/bin/bash
file=$1

ans=0
while  read -r line || [[ -n "$line" ]]
do
echo $line
done < $file # passing the file

for which I am getting the following output

a
test main.py sic.sh
b

Where files of my directory are being shown instead of *

I want to take some decisions on the basis of * char for which I need to detect/read * ?

The **input** is fine. The **output** is a problem. Make it `echo "$line"` and you're fine. — Charles Duffy, Dec 12 '18 at 22:03
BTW, this is a bug that http://shellcheck.net/ would catch automatically. — Charles Duffy, Dec 12 '18 at 22:04
always quote variables to prevent wordsplitting and to prevent issues with globbing — 0.sh, Dec 12 '18 at 22:09
See [When to wrap quotes around a shell variable?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10067266/when-to-wrap-quotes-around-a-shell-variable) — glenn jackman, Dec 12 '18 at 22:40

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 12 '18 at 21:55

7

Always quote variables:

#!/bin/bash
file="$1"

ans=0
while  read -r line || [[ -n "$line" ]]
do
    echo "$line"
done < "$file" # passing the file

answered Dec 12 '18 at 21:55

Poshi

1 Answers1