Passing the command line argument in a variable

rkumar28 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-25-2004

Hi,
I am new to unix. Is their a way to pass the output of the line below to a variable var1.
ls -1t | head -1.

I am trying something like var1=ls -1t | head -1, but I get error.

Situation is: I get file everyday through FTP in my unix box. I have to write a script that picks up first latest file that comes in and pass the content of that file to another file called the load.txt. The FTP filename changes depending on the source.

I tried something like:

var1=ls -1t | head -1
cat $var1>load.txt
I error out on the first line of my script.

Also I tried something like var1=ls -1t | head -1 | cat >load.txt. But I am not getting the desired result.

I will really appreciate any help in this regards.

jim mcnamara · #2 (**permalink**) 05-26-2004

Code:

var1=`ls -1t | head -1`

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