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From: jeff@cjsa.UUCP (C. Jeffery Small)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: embedded newlines in shell variable?
Message-ID: <228@cjsa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Aug-87 13:33:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: cjsa.228
Posted: Mon Aug 10 13:33:44 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Aug-87 07:16:36 EDT
Organization: C. Jeffery Small and Associates - New Haven, CT
Lines: 38
Keywords: sed sh shell

I have been attempting to construct a 'sed' command line script and load it
into a shell variable (called ACTION) for later use within a bourne shell
script.  All goes well until I need sed to append new text to the end of the
input data.  To work, sed's append command ( a\ ) requires newlines to be
embedded as follows:
			'$a\
			NEW LINE OF MATERIAL'


What follows is an example of what I am attempting to achieve:

Match last line ------++-----Append text
		      ||
		      vv
	ACTION=" -e '\$a\\nNEW LINE OF MATERIAL'"
	...
	sed  ${ACTION} $1


My experience has been that using '\n' in the assignment get the newline
into the variable so that  echo $ACTION  prints correctly, but sed will
not interpret the '\n' sequence properly.

On the other hand, attempting to embed actual newlines (^J) within the
assignment (ie. ACTION="-e '\$a\^JNEW LINE OF MATERIAL'") does not work
since the shell substitutes the ^J with a single space.

I have tried to escape every character in sight and even attempted an
eval on $ACTION under various modes of construction, without success.

I'm guessing that there is a simple (and obvious) trick for doing what I
want.  Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
----
Jeffery Small          (203) 776-2000     UUCP:   ihnp4!---\
C. Jeffery Small and Associates	                            hsi!cjsa!jeff
123 York Street, New Haven, CT  06511          hao!noao!---/