cat command in sh and tabs

echo · #1 (**permalink**) 10-03-2008

Hi guys, I'm writing an assignment for a programming course and I'm using cat to cat out 8 lines of a file to be used later
curSection=`cat $FILENAME|head -$start|tail -8`
I found that if the original file contains tabs in those lines, curSection will not have tabs but a space for each tab. I need to keep track of the tabs that existed in the original, any ideas how to do this?(tabs and spaces both exist in the original) As simple as possible please

many thanks

Jay

nullwhat · #2 (**permalink**) 10-03-2008

see

man tab

danmero · #3 (**permalink**) 10-03-2008

OP should use double quotes:

Code:

echo "$curSection"

vidyadhar85 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-04-2008

or else use

Code:

print "$curSection"

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