bash - assign a variable with spaces in shell -

i have file has following text written -

hello h.i. b-y-e 

i want read value variable. have defined function -

function read() { p=`cat $1`; echo "$p"; $2=`echo "$p"`; } 

i following error -

hello h.i. b-y-e -bash: v=hello: command not found 

however, when -

p=`cat $filename`  text=`echo "$p"` 

i have desired string text. can please explain difference in behaviour way acheive want do.

see wordsplitting means in shell context

all need store in variable is,

filecontent="$(<input-file)" printf "%s\n" "$filecontent" hello h.i. b-y-e 

(or) if think not deserve 2 lines, use single-line as

printf "%s\n" "$(<input-file)" 

(or) using function as

function getfilecontents() {    local input=$1    printf "%s" "$(<input)"   }  newvariable="$(getfilecontents input-file)" printf "%s\n" "$newvariable" hello h.i. b-y-e 

(and) if requirement bad enough pass variable function, like

unset newvariable  function getfilecontents() {    local input=$1    declare -n var=$2    var="$(<$input)" }  getfilecontents file newvariable printf "%s\n" "$newvariable" hello h.i. b-y-e