Question

I would like to compare a content of an array with a content of a file. I guess the best solution is to:

b=( some data )
a=$(<file)
if [ $a -ne ${b[@]} ]
then
    echo "variables are different"
fi

Am I correct?

Answer 1

Try this :

$ cat file
a
b
c
$ echo -n "arrays are "
$ x1=( a b c )
$ mapfile -t x2 < file
$ [[ ${x1[@]} == ${x2[@]} ]] && echo "identical" || echo >&2 "different"