Bash: Storing command result in variable messes up output

Question

I am in WSL and I try to get the windows username:

#!/bin/bash

WINDOWS_USER=$("whoami.exe")
echo "Windows username: '${WINDOWS_USER}'"

but the output is kinda scrambled:

$ ./createNewUser.sh
'indows username: 'intra\user

I actually expected the output Windows username: 'intra\user'. But the last ' is moved to the start of the sentence - how can this happen?

Did you write the script using a Windows editor that saves its files as DOS text files (with an extra carriage-return at the end of each line, compared to Unix text files)? — Kusalananda
– Kusalananda ♦, Commented Mar 8, 2024 at 10:07
I wrote the script using nano in a WSL shell. If I open the file in Notepad++ there is only a LF at the end of each line — binaryBigInt
– binaryBigInt, Commented Mar 8, 2024 at 10:11
The carriage-return is being output by whoami.exe, not the script. intra\user<CR> sends the following ' back to over-write the first column. Check it with printf '%s' "${WINDOWS_USER}" | od -t x1ac. — Paul_Pedant
– Paul_Pedant, Commented Mar 8, 2024 at 10:37

terdon · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-08 12:33:49Z

1

The problem was that this command added a \r before the final \n. It can be removed via:

WINDOWS_USER=$(whoami.exe | tr -d '\r')

terdon♦

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answered Mar 8, 2024 at 10:36

binaryBigInt

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