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I have file.txt with command stored in one line (this command is valid when running in console) and I want to execute it in one line with sh like

cat file.txt | eval

what is missing? any protips?

and what if I have file with many commands (one for each line) and I want to execute only one command (one whole line)? my first idea is:

head -n5 | tail -n1 | eval
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possible duplicate of cat line X to line Y on a huge file –  HalosGhost Jun 21 at 16:34
    
Though there is a slight twist, what you're looking for appears to be very similar to extracting part of a file (which has been covered in several questions, e.g., here. –  HalosGhost Jun 21 at 16:36
    
What's the point, as opposed to just executing the file? –  l0b0 Jun 21 at 16:47
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1 Answer

up vote 4 down vote accepted

eval does not read its command string from stdin.

eval "$(cat file.txt)"
# or easier, in bash
eval "$(<file.txt)"
# usually you cannot be sure that a command ends at the end of line 5
eval "$(head -n 5 file.txt)"

Instead of eval you can take source if the commands are in a file anyway:

source file

That does not work with choosing a part of the file, of course. That could be done by:

head -n 5 file.txt >commands.tmp
source commands.tmp
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