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I am working on homework assignment. The last question the ls /bin | shuf -n 1 works to get a random command. But getting the whatis command to read the output from that isn't working.

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jww
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anti_nugget
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  • basically asking the what the command would be to print out "did you know that: *insert whatis command of [ Ls /bin | shuf -n 1 ]*" – anti_nugget Nov 17 '19 at 03:54
  • the one shown in the snip is what i have but its not working. the bold print is th question, everything else is my answer. – anti_nugget Nov 17 '19 at 03:55
  • I believe you want to use `xargs`. Something like `ls -1 /bin/ | shuf -n 1 | xargs whatis`. Or maybe `whatis $(ls -1 /bin/ | shuf -n 1)`. Also see [Get argument from pipe](https://stackoverflow.com/q/17847103/608639). – jww Nov 17 '19 at 05:21

1 Answers1

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Use echo -n and subshell

echo -n "Did you know that " && whatis -s1,8 $(ls -1 /bin | shuf -n 1)

- OR the old way with backticks - 

echo -n "Did you know that " && whatis -s1,8 `ls -1 /bin | shuf -n 1`

Comments:

ls -1 provides single line output

whatis -s1,8 limits man pages to sections 1 and 8

niry
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