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    Where are variables stored? If you were dealing with a large file or something of that sort, wouldn't this hog up a lot of memory? Are variables limited in size? Commented Jan 7, 2012 at 4:09
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    what if $commandoutput is huge?, its better to use pipes and process substitution. Commented Jan 7, 2012 at 13:00
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    Obviously this solution is possible only when you know the size of the output will easily fit in memory, and you're OK with buffering the entire output before running the next commands on it. Pipes solve these two problems by allowing arbitrary length data and streaming it in real time to the receiver as it's generated. Commented Jun 23, 2013 at 12:15
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    This is a good solution if you have small output, and you know that the output will be text and not binary. (shell variables often aren't binary safe) Commented Jul 20, 2014 at 4:48
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    I can't get this to work with binary data. I think it's something with echo trying to interpret null bytes or some other noncharacter data. Commented May 21, 2017 at 16:13