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<p>
<a href="index.html">execline</a><br />
<a href="http://skarnet.org/software/">Software</a><br />
<a href="http://skarnet.org/">skarnet.org</a>
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<h1> The <tt>backtick</tt> program </h1>

<p>
<tt>backtick</tt> runs a program and stores its output in an
environment variable, then executes another program.
</p>

<h2> Interface </h2>

<p>
 In an <a href="execlineb.html">execlineb</a> script:
</p>

<pre>
     backtick [ -i | -D <em>default</em> ] [ -n ] <em>variable</em> { <em>prog1...</em> } <em>prog2...</em>
</pre>

<ul>
 <li> <tt>backtick</tt> reads <em>prog1...</em> in a
<a href="el_semicolon.html">block</a> and unquotes it. </li>
 <li> It runs <em>prog1...</em> as a child process and saves its
output in memory. This output must not contain a null character. </li>
 <li><tt>backtick</tt> execs into the modified <em>prog2...</em>, with
<em>variable</em> added to the environment with <em>prog1...</em>'s
output as a value. </li>
</ul>

<h2> Options </h2>

<ul>
 <li> <tt>-i</tt>&nbsp;: insist. If <em>prog1</em> crashes or exits non-zero,
<tt>backtick</tt> exits with an
<a href="exitcodes.html">approximation</a> of the same exit code. </li>
 <li> <tt>-D&nbsp;<em>default</em></tt>&nbsp;: default value. If
<em>prog1</em> crashes or exits non-zero, <em>default</em> is used as
<em>variable</em>'s value. If neither the <tt>-i</tt> nor the <tt>-D</tt>
option have been given, <tt>backtick</tt> execs into
<em>prog2...</em> no matter what <em>prog1</em> does, with the null word as
<em>variable</em>'s value if <em>prog1</em> didn't write anything before
dying. </li>
 <li> <tt>-n</tt>&nbsp;: chomp an ending newline off <em>prog1...</em>'s
output. </li>
</ul>

<h2> Notes </h2>

<ul>
 <li> You can start <em>prog2...</em> with "import -u <em>variable</em>"
to perform variable substitution. </li>
</ul>

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