How to format linux mpstat output in multiple lines

Question

I have a small script where I appended the output of linux mpstat to a log file.

#/bin/bash
CPU_USAGE=$(mpstat)
echo $CPU_USAGE >> temp.log

The problem is that the output of mpstat on the terminal is formatted properly in 3 lines like so

However, the output to the file is all in one line.

How do I format the output like the one on the terminal?

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '19 at 10:02

1

Just quote the variable so it is not seen as several different parameters to be printed one after the other:

echo "$CPU_USAGE" >> temp.log

answered Dec 19 '19 at 10:02

Poshi

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 19 '19 at 10:04

You could just directly pipe the output to the file:

#!/bin/bash
mpstat >> temp.log

If you must store it in a variable, then quote it like:

#!/bin/bash
CPU_USAGE=$(mpstat)
echo "$CPU_USAGE" >> temp.log

Otherwise, bash will not interpret the newlines as part of the message to echo, but the whole output as a list of short strings to output.

2 Answers2