Re: Returning system command output to a string variable

[Juergen W. <wie...@fr...>]

On Monday 07 March 2005 23:45, Ethan Merritt wrote:
> Juergen Wieferink wrote (apropos RFE 1108413):
> > The proper syntax would be a string function
> > "command('blabla1')" returning the standard output as a
> > string (as suggested by Petr in October 2004). I still think
> > this would be a useful feature.
[...]
> The syntax command(`blabla`) is difficult to implement in gnuplot's
> parser, because it will try evaluate the contents of the parantheses
> before recognizing the particular function being called.  This just
> pushes back the original problem by one layer of function call.
> There may be a way around this, but so far I haven't been able to see it.
>
> What I *can* see how to do easily is to distinguish between
> single back-quotes and double back-quotes.  The system command would be
> executed in either case.  The single back-quote case would then

I didn't propose backtics.  And the double quotes were not meant
literally.  Sorry for such ambiguous suggestions.

I meant an ordinary function which takes a string (the system
command) and returns another one---the output of the system command.
Using the backtics wouldn't work for RFE#1108413.


Juergen