The following will read from an external file and output the data:
#!/bin/bash
while IFS='|' read hostname nickname; do
echo $hostname $nickname
done < "list.dat"
Where the list.dat file is:
firstserver|joe
secondserver|henry
thirdserver|jack
But I'd like to actually store the list.dat in the script itself (not externally) but don't know how to reference it as a variable/array and read from it with the same results...
Try using a here document:
#!/bin/bash
while IFS='|' read hostname nickname; do
echo $hostname $nickname
done <<LIMIT
firstserver|joe
secondserver|henry
thirdserver|jack
LIMIT
Here strings pass a variable or string as I think you want:
#!/bin/bash
input="firstserver|joe
secondserver|henry
thirdserver|jack"
while IFS='|' read hostname nickname; do
echo $hostname $nickname
done <<< "$input"
$input is also a good idea.
bash prior to 4.3 that could cause problems with combining a local IFS setting with a here string. Using a here document may be safer.bash does not apply word-splitting or path expansion to a parameter expanded as a here string, so the quotes are unnecessary.If bash 4 is available to you, I'd use an associative array:
declare -A servers=(
["firstserver"]=joe
["secondserver"]=henry
…
)
for hostname in "${!servers[@]}"; do
echo "$hostname" "${servers[$hostname]}"
done
This assumes the hostnames are unique.
