Shell Variable Problem

[Greg Stark_1]

I want to search all the files in directory for the word N O R T H. If I run

grep -i "N O R T H" *

from the command line, it finds the files with the word in it.

If I do this

export VAR="N O R T H"
grep -i $VAR *

I get content from every file in the directory.

I've also tried exporting the VAR like this

export VAR='"N O R T H"'

But then it searches for each letter, not the entire word.

Any ideas how to set this variable so the shell interprets it properly?

Thanks again,
Greg

[Steven E. Protter]

try the -e (expression option)

grep -i -e $VAR

SEP

[RAC_1]

Check for yourself. It differs.

echo `grep -i "N O R T H" *`
export VAR="N O R T H"
echo `grep -i $VAR *`

Anil

[Francisco J. Soler · Accepted solution]

Hi Greg,
try:
export VAR="N O R T H"
grep -i "$VAR" *
or even
grep -i "${VAR}" *

Frank.

[Bill Hassell]

The problem is that you tell the shell to treat the contents of a variable as a single string too. When you just plunk $VAR into a command line, the shell expands it to it's value but doesn't know that you wnat the entire contents treated as a single string. Always enclose the use of a variable containing special characters with "" as in grep -i "$VAR"

[Greg Stark_1]

Thanks all.