Shell Programming and Scripting

 awk '{a=""; for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) a=a?(a "=" $i):$i ; print a}'  RS= names.txt

awk '$1=$1' OFS="=" RS= names.txt

$ paste -sd= file | sed 's/==/\n/g'
john=jon=jhon
mary=marry=meri=mari

$FILE_NAME="abc.txt";
$/="\n\n";

open(FH_R,"<",$FILE_NAME)|| die "Unable to open $FILE_NAME for reading: $!\n";
while (<FH_R>)
{
        chomp;
        s/\n+/=/g;
        print "$_\n";
}
close FH_R;

open (FILE,"file1");
while(<FILE>)
{
   $line = $_;
   if ( $line =~ /^\s*$/ )
   {
       print "$value\n";
       $value = "";  @value = ();
   }
   else
   {
     push (@value,$line);
     $value = join "=",@value;
   }
}
close(FILE);

$tr '\n' "=" < file | sed 's/==/\n/g'
john=jon=jhon
mary=marry=meri=mari

awk 'NF==0{f=0;printf "\n";next}{if(f==1){printf "="$1}else{f=1;printf $1}}' filename