bash uses $ character to indicate variables. for example, you can see your current environment variables with the env command. then to see a specific variable echo $var to print its value.

scripts may call variables for a variety of reasons. one common case would be collecting information from the environment it's running under to determine whether it's compatible.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Oh. Oh yeah, I have done that. Like for adding the date to a file name when I dump a terminal output to into a text file, or adding hit counts to a custom notification after running a scan on a cron job.

I just use the character for that. It's fine, can't win them all, but it's better than having it at the beginning of every command line for seemingly no reason

[–] oozynozh@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago

bingo