STRING-COLLECT(1)

💖 STRING-COLLECT(1) 💖

okay so this is a fish-shell manual page, and honestly? it's lowkey one of the most useful little gremlins in the whole toolbox. bestie, let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

string-collect — join strings into one 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

string collect [-a | --allow-empty] [-N | --no-trim-newlines] [STRING ...]

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

So string collect does exactly what it says on the tin: it scoops up all its input and collects it into a single output argument, and crucially it does not split that output when you use it inside a command substitution. no cap, that's the whole vibe. 🎀

Why do you care? because it's chef's kiss for collecting multiline output from some other command straight into a variable. that's the main character use case fr.

Exit status: 0 if any output argument is non-empty, or 1 otherwise. simple as that 💅

A command like echo (cmd | string collect) is mostly equivalent to a quoted command substitution, like echo "$(cmd)". the one main difference? the former evaluates to zero or one elements, whereas the quoted command substitution always evaluates to one element, thanks to string interpolation. iykyk 😭

If you invoke it with multiple arguments instead of piping in input, string collect keeps each argument separate — the number of output arguments is equal to the number of arguments you handed it. it's giving "respect the individual" energy ✨

Any trailing newlines on the input get trimmed, just like what happens with "$(cmd)" substitution. want to turn that off? hit it with --no-trim-newlines, which is handy when you're running something like:

set contents (cat filename | string collect -N)

And with --allow-empty, string collect always prints one (empty) argument. use it so your argument doesn't just vanish into the void 🫥💀

---

🎀 the flags, one by one 🎀

• -a, --allow-empty — always prints one (empty) argument, so an argument can't disappear on you 👑
• -N, --no-trim-newlines — turns off the trailing-newline trimming, so those newlines stay put 🦋

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

okay these are iconic, watch closely:

>_ echo "zero $(echo one\ntwo\nthree) four"
zero one
two
three four

>_ echo \"(echo one\ntwo\nthree | string collect)\"
"one
two
three"

>_ echo \"(echo one\ntwo\nthree | string collect -N)\"
"one
two
three
"

>_ echo foo(true | string collect --allow-empty)bar
foobar

see how the -N version keeps that extra newline before the closing quote? that's the whole point bestie 💖

💜 Copyright 💜

fish-shell developers 🐟

---

and that's the page!! slay 🎉 this is fish-shell 4.9, dated Sep 08, 2026 — go forth and collect your strings, queen 👑💅