read command not reading from pipe. why?
 

I see that the read command stores input entered only on the console
into the variables. Example:

$ read a
foo
$ echo $a
foo

But when I don't enter input on the console by keyboard, but pipe it
into the standard input of read, I am unable to store the input into
the variable.

$ echo bar | read a
$ echo $a
foo

However, the help of read says this:

$ help read
read: read [-ers] [-a array] [-d delim] [-i text] [-n nchars] [-p
prompt] [-t timeout] [-u fd] [name ...]
Read a line from the standard input and split it into fields.

So, why is it not reading the line from standard input when input is
passed to it using a pipe?


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read command not reading from pipe. why?
 

On 2010-01-05 00:40 (+0530), Foss User wrote:

> But when I don't enter input on the console by keyboard, but pipe it
> into the standard input of read, I am unable to store the input into
> the variable.
>
> $ echo bar | read a
> $ echo $a
> foo

Because of piping command "read a" is executed in another process so the
variable "a" has different binding there. It won't affect its mother
process in which you later executed the "echo $a" command. Here's
another example:

$ a=foo
$ echo bar | { read a; echo $a; }
bar
$ echo $a
foo


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