If I understand you correctly, I think you want: six=`tail -n1 numbers.dat` - Jared On Sunday 02 June 2002 09:53 am, you wrote: > This should be an easy one, but for some reason I can't find the docs I > need. In a bash script, how do you store the return of a program into a > variable? For instance, I have a dat file: > 001 > 002 > 003 > 004 > 005 > 006 > I want to store the 006 into $six. I thought I could do something like: > > six=tail -n1 numbers.dat > > but that didn't work. What am I missing? Also, is there a way I can use > a sed command to strip off the leading 00? TIA!!! > > -Brian > > _______________________________________________ > Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, > Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list