No, it does not suggest he knows (exactly) how many. In fact, the OP was pretty clear that the length of the output depends on external factors.
He *may* know exactly how many lines he needs to read, so I'm not saying that your solution isn't viable. I'm just answering your question.
In reply to Re^4: How to read from shell command and terminate it afterwards?
by ikegami
in thread How to read from shell command and terminate it afterwards?
by Wen
| For: | Use: | ||
| & | & | ||
| < | < | ||
| > | > | ||
| [ | [ | ||
| ] | ] |