Why do I get a "foo: not found" error whe assigning a variable?

Question

I am getting foo: not found when running the following code:

foo = "`cat test.txt`"

contents of test.txt:

Hello World

[ShellCheck](https://www.shellcheck.net) automatically detects common problems including this one — that other guy, Jul 11 '20 at 17:04

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 11 '20 at 14:26

1

The syntax for defining a variable is without spaces:

foo="`cat test.txt`"

answered Jul 11 '20 at 14:26

noam

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Ente · Answer 2 · 2020-07-11T16:44:17.470

1

When you omit the spaces around the = it will work.

foo="`cat test.txt`"

With the space after foo, bash tries to run the command foo with = as first argument and "`cat test.txt`" as second argument. But since you don't have an executable in your path called foo, bash then complains that it can not find foo.

edited Jul 11 '20 at 16:44

answered Jul 11 '20 at 16:30

Ente

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Why do I get a "foo: not found" error whe assigning a variable?

2 Answers2