the "cmd <<EOL ..\n..\n EOL" part has been mystical to me for ages, espe...

akldfgj · on Sept 12, 2012

`man bash` , search for "<<" see the "Here Strings" section.

You can also search https://www.google.com/search?q=bash and follow links to "Documentation"

    xargs echo <<EOL  
    > line 1
    > line 2  
    > EOL
    line 1 line 2

    $ cat <<EOL
    > line 1
    > line 2 
    > EOL
    line 1
    line 2

line-terminators get eaten by xargs

allstruck · on Sept 10, 2012

What is so mystifying about this?

Doing this:

"cat << EOL

line one

line two

EOL"

Would be the same as this:

"cat < file"

That is if 'file' contained this:

"line one

line two"

This doesn't work with the echo command because it does not use stdin like cat does.