On 2024-01-12 14:09, Bart Schaefer wrote:
> Yeah, oddly, there's no straightforward way to get an unaltered file
> into a shell variable.  Even
>    read -rd '' < file
> trims off trailing newlines.

In my situation that would be welcome, tho on principle I do wish the 
culture was: 'If I want something done to my data I'll ask for it'.

> I'm expecting Roman or someone to point out a different trick I've forgotten.

Roman would know.  I have my utility working quite well,   where the 
input isn't an array it's very simple:

     % varis variable

Without the dollar sign.  It evals it internally *after* capturing the 
name. You put the utility inside some function to trace variable values, 
it prints out like:

/
/

    function test1 ()
    {

    local my_variable="Shall I compare thee to a summer\'s day?"
    varis my_variable "some comment"
    }

    0 /aWorking/Zsh/Source/Wk 1 % . test1; test1

    ...

    test1():4 in: test1:6 > "$my_variable" is: |Shall I compare thee to
    a summer's day?| some comment - 18:33:06

    ... It reports name of function, logical line, running file,
    physical line, name of variable, content, some comment if present
    and the time.  I love it.  Anyway, it was all good except that
    arrays print on multiple lines if requested and they were not
    showing any blank lines, which I object to on principle -- so I'm
    trying to fix that.  It's 99% there:

    0 /aWorking/Zsh/Source/Wk 1 % print -l "$vvar[@]"     # What it
    really looks like.
    one two
    three

    four

    five six seven


    eight

    0 /aWorking/Zsh/Source/Wk 1 % varis ,m vvar ! this is comment     #
    squashed array, usually fine but ...

    zsh():15 in: zsh:15 > "$vvar" is:
    one two
    three
    four
    five six seven
    eight
    ! this is comment - 18:41:06

    0 /aWorking/Zsh/Source/Wk 1 % varis ,m "${(@f)vvar}" ! this is
    comment     # ... when I'm determined to see the blanks:

    zsh():16 in: zsh:16 > RAW:
    one two
    three

    four

    five six seven


    eight




    this is comment - 18:41:13


... as discussed I have to twist the shell's arm to get my file into a 
variable as it actually is.  In practice it's not a big deal but on 
principle it would be nice to avoid "  "${(@f) var}" "

This sure looks good:

    0 /aWorking/Zsh/Source/Wk 0 % read -rd '' < testfile2 aaa

    0 /aWorking/Zsh/Source/Wk 0 % print -l $aaa     # Sheesh, it's so
    simple here.
    one two
    three

    four

    five six seven


    eight