How to capture the return value (no error code) in unix shell command?

Question

i am trying to capture the return value of simple command:

i.e:

pwd

where can i find the relevant return value without stdout it to file?

Thanks koby

i.e : awk 'NR==7' Single.log will return line 7 in Single.log — Koby
– Koby, Commented Nov 4, 2010 at 13:20

Antoine Pelisse · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-04 13:58:52Z

2

you can use `pwd`

for example:

$ setenv MY_PWD `pwd`
$ echo $MY_PWD
/my/current/path

edited Nov 4, 2010 at 13:58

answered Nov 4, 2010 at 12:52

Antoine Pelisse

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6 Comments

Koby Over a year ago

When typing line : MY_PWD=$(pwd) it says "MY_PWD=: Command not found."

Antoine Pelisse Over a year ago

you have to make sure you have no spaces before the = sign: MY_PWD=$(pwd)

Daniele Santi Over a year ago

@user497159 what shell are you using? In csh for example you should use setenv to create an enviroment variable.

Antoine Pelisse Over a year ago

can you please tell me if the new command (i.e. setenv MY_PWD `pwd`) works ?

Antoine Pelisse Over a year ago

I'm glad it finally works ! Can you please validate my answer then ? ;)

|

Ole Melhus · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-04 12:55:41Z

1

You can try `pwd`

ole@...:~$ echo `pwd`
/home/ole
ole@...:~$

answered Nov 4, 2010 at 12:55

Ole Melhus

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3 Comments

Antoine Pelisse Over a year ago

how do you print those ... backtick ? :)

Ole Melhus Over a year ago

Do you mean how I got Stack-O to print them without converting them to "codeblock"? Escaped it with a backslash :-)

Nefrubyr Over a year ago

$ (and everything before it) is the shell prompt. Ole means you should type echo `pwd`.

Danosaure · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-04 13:11:08Z

1

The first question people should be asking is... what shell are you running this in?

$ MY_PWD=$(pwd) will work in sh-like.

I think the `pwd` will call a subshell, but again, depending on the shell, the syntax to set the output value to a variable will depend on your shell.

answered Nov 4, 2010 at 13:11

Danosaure

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1 Comment

Danosaure Over a year ago

Then you should be able to write "set variablename = `pwd`; echo $variablename"

jgritty · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-04 12:52:15Z

0

echo $?

Is that what you are looking for?

answered Nov 4, 2010 at 12:52

jgritty

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nonopolarity · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-04 12:53:17Z

0

http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/exit-status.html

use $?

answered Nov 4, 2010 at 12:53

nonopolarity

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1 Comment

Antoine Pelisse Over a year ago

This is specifically what he doesn't want

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