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Everything about Command substitution

Feature of Unix shells and some programming languages

In computing, command substitution is a facility that allows a command to be run and its output to be pasted back on the command line as arguments to another command. Command substitution first appeared in the Bourne shell, introduced with Version 7 Unix in 1979, and has remained a characteristic of all later Unix shells. The feature has since been adopted in other programming languages as well, including Perl, PHP, Ruby and Microsoft's Powershell under Windows. It also appears in Microsoft's CMD.EXE in the FOR command and the ( ) command. Wikipedia →

đź§­ Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: Command substitutionA 5-minute orientation
  2. Pick up a classic book: Automate the Boring Stuff with PythonThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  3. Read the landmark paper: Zimbabwe’s Special Maize Programme for the Import Substitution (Command Agriculture) Scheme: A Hit-and-Miss AffairCited 10 times
  4. Go sideways: C shellA closely related topic
  5. Go sideways: Bourne shellA closely related topic

đź“– Definitions

No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.

🗂️ The subject at a glance

  1. Syntax and semantics
  2. Expression substitution

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

đź”— Related topics