How to redirection Standard error to an env variable instead of a file

[yyghp]

I am writing a script used for quite a bunch of users. I use the command "ldappasswd" in the script for the user to change their password. While the errors are not friendly to the users, such as "ldap_bind: Invalid credentials" if they type the wrong old password.
I would like to redirect such error to an environment variable, and compare the error strings, then echo some friendly words to the standard output.
I know I can redirect the error to a file, like:
ldappasswd 2>errorfile
But is it possible to redirect the standard error to a variable ?
Thanks!

[Michael Schulte zur Sur]

Hi,

try ldappasswd 2>&1 >/dev/null

greetings,

Michael

[Senthil Kumar .A_1]

Hi yyghp,

if the script you are using doesnot throw up any output message and only error output..
u could write a script like this...

------------------------------------
#!/usr/bin/sh
ERR=`/path/ldappasswd 2>&1`
if [ ERR .....form here on your logic...

------------------------------------

The character around /path/ldappasswd 2>&1 is a back quote ,the one u find before "key 1" in KB.

NOTE:
But mind you, if the error message is multilined..the "\n" enter character will be stripped off and made into single line and put in the variable.

[Muthukumar_5]

Yes. But preferred way is as like,

ldappasswd | grep -q "ldap_bind: Invalid credentials"
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]
then
echo "action got error"
else
echo "ok"
fi

grep -q will be used to search string in silent mode.

hth.

[Michael Schulte zur Sur · Accepted solution]

Oups,

I copyied only half of what I wanted.
That should have been
ERR=`ldappasswd 2>&1 >/dev/null`
which is roughly the same as that from senthil.
If you need the stdout too then you can redirect stderr to file and read it into a variable.
ldappasswd args 2>errorlog
ERR=`cat errorlog`

Michael

[Sandman!]

command substitution will let you get at what you want...

# ERR=$(ldappasswd 2>&1)
OR
# ERR=`ldappasswd 2>&1`

both these forms should work.