VAR="original.txt"
CHOPPPED=`echo -n $VAR | perl -ne 'print substr($_, 0, -4)'`

$CHOPPED is now "original".

Note that echoing it without the -n will add a linefeed on the end and you
will need to go back 5 spaces rather than 4 to achieve the desired effect.

Garrett

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bart Garst" <bartgarst@cox.net>
To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 9:47 PM
Subject: RE: how do I chop of characters at the end of a line...


> With Perl:
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl -w
> $filename = shift;
> $filename =~ s/\.\S*//;
> print "$filename\n";
>
> Bart
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Entelin
> Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 9:39 PM
> To: Phoenix Linux Users Group
> Subject: how do I chop of characters at the end of a line...
>
>
> I want to take a variable say  a="string.txt"  and chop off the last 4
> characters so I can make variable b equal to just "string"
>
> Thanks for your help
>
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