[bash] how to use _piped_ data in a shellscript?

[joe3]

I have a utility script that among other things opens a personal "snippage" text file for interactive editing with vim. Here is a section of the shellscript:

- - - - - - - - -< s n i p >- - - - - - - - - -

if [ $@ == "" ]
then
echo "No snipData in arg list"
else
echo "
+++++++======== begin (arg list) snipData on "`date`"
$@
+++++++======== end snipData
">>$snip/toit.txt
fi

- - - - - - - - -< s n i p >- - - - - - - - - -

With this I can get the contents of a text file appended to toit.txt with a command like:

$ toit `cat test.txt`

But what I want to be able to do is to accomplish the same thing by.

$ cat test.txt|toit

But I have no idea how to redirect the piped input into a variable so that my script can manipulate it...

Would someone be so kind as to give me a clue?
--
joe3

[xlnagla]

http://wooledge.org:8000/BashFAQ#head-5 ... 37367343b0

~xlnagla