How to add new line in shell scripting

Question

I'm using rhel7 and trying to print my output from shadow for example to be like this :

test1 !!
test2 !!
test3 *

I am running this command:

i=`cat /home/mydir/shadow1 |awk -F ':' '{print $1,$2}' `

When I do echo $i, it will print the output in 1 line:

test !! test2 !! test3 *

Can anyone advice how should I modify my '{print $1,$2}' so that it will print a new line?

You've not double quoted your variable when you use it, so the shell has re-interpreted the result - and this includes replacing a white space (and newlines) with single spaces — Chris Davies, Jan 26 '21 at 08:24
Finally, don't use backticks for command evaluation. Use the relatively modern $( command ) syntax instead — Chris Davies, Jan 26 '21 at 08:26
Do you need your shell variable i for anything else? If not, there's no point in having it at all. Just awk ... shadow1. — Kusalananda, Jan 26 '21 at 09:31

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 26 '21 at 08:22

0

Your awk print-statement is all fine.

Use quotes for echo:

echo "$i"

answered Jan 26 '21 at 08:22

user3188140

Valentin Bajrami · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-28T06:47:11.460

0

The question is clear. This problem can be approached in different ways. Not sure what the intention is but you can use for example the following:

while IFS=: read -r user stat _; do echo "$user" "$stat"; done < /etc/shadow

If you want to store the whole output of awk you could use something like this:

 var=$(awk -F: '{print $1,$2}' /etc/shadow)

You'd then just need to echo "$var" to print the results.

edited Jan 28 '21 at 06:47

answered Jan 26 '21 at 08:58

Valentin Bajrami

Thank you. I'm able to get my output now! – msmystic Jan 27 '21 at 07:43
1

I'm adding this "while IFS= read -r line" to my array in the scripting, all good now! Thank you. – msmystic Jan 27 '21 at 08:06

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 26 '21 at 17:00

0

Instead of echo $i, try using:

echo -e "$i\n"

This adds a line break at the end of the line.

Hope it helps.

answered Jan 26 '21 at 17:00

Luis Talora

3 Answers3