I have a simple script: #!/bin/bash # index=0 total=0 names=() ip=() while read -r LINE do NODENAME=` echo $LINE | cut -f 1 -d ','` IP=` echo $LINE | cut -f 2 -d ','` names[index]="$NODENAME" ip[index]="$IP" index=`expr index+1` total=`expr total+1` done <<< $(cat list.txt) simple file: more list.txt name1,ip1 name2,ip2 name3,ip3 output when running: sh -x ./test_bash.sh + index=0 + total=0 + names=() + ip=() ++ cat list.txt + read -r LINE ++ echo name1,ip1 name2,ip2 name3,ip3 ++ cut -f 1 -d , + NODENAME=name1 ++ echo name1,ip1 name2,ip2 name3,ip3 ++ cut -f 2 -d , + IP='ip1 name2' + names[index]=name1 + ip[index]='ip1 name2' ++ expr index+1 + index=index+1 ++ expr total+1 + total=total+1 + read -r LINE + echo name1 name1 Question is why is it not reading one line at a time ? All I get is the first one. I'm just trying to build the array of the items in the file and then list them at this point. Thanks Jerry