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STOP cat-ing Into Stuff in Shell!

Be really sure you know why using cat in the following example is dead wrong and downright unsafe.

#!/bin/bash

declare count=1

# WRONG! (count is shadowed by subshell)
# cat /tmp/bar | while read line; do
#   echo "$count $line"
#   ((count++))
# done

while read line; do
  echo "$count $line"
  ((count++))
done < /tmp/bar

echo "Should be 3: $count"

Tags:

#linux #bash #secops #scripting #coding

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