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7

Is eval $(cat filename) the same as source filename?

rated 0 times [ 7] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 13229 / 2 Years ago, mon, may 23, 2022, 5:00:34

Working on some bash functions, I didn't know source ... command, so I used eval $(cat ...) instead. Now I am wondering, whethe should I change every use of that, or is it just the same function?

They appear to work the same now, but maybe there will be some misleading differences later, I just want to know.

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1 Year ago

answered 2 Years ago atchcommo · Accepted Answer

eval $(cat ...) doesn't work in all cases. For example line breaks are converted to a single space by $(cat ...) before the content is processed by eval. This often breaks multi line statements like loops and here documents.

Try for example the following file with both methods:

for i in 1 2 3; do

 echo $i

done



cat<<EOF

a

b

c

EOF