'>' symbol whenever I try to copy results of a command to a variable

Question

Whenever I try to save the command output to a variable terminal is stuck with a '>' symbol. I tried:

n=$(awk 'END{print NR}' 1.log')

and also

n="$(awk 'END{print NR}' 1.log')"

Every time I have to break the execution using ctrl+c

what am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

Maybe a simple typo with a stray '.

Try this:

n=$(awk 'END{print NR}' 1.log)

---

The > is a prompt and an indication that bash is waiting for you to close the (stray) ' with a matching '. The exact value printed is held in the PS2 variable. The following is from the bash manual:

PS2 The value of this parameter is expanded as with PS1 and used as the secondary prompt string. The default is '> '.