Reading CLOB value into UNIX Variable

Hi All,

I am trying to fetch CLOB value into Unix Variable but I am not able to see the entire value when I print it.

MSG_CLOB =`sqlplus -s $USERID << EOF

set heading off

set feedback off

set pages 0

set lines 132

    SELECT  MSG_CLOB   

FROM XXC_TEMP_TABLE WHERE sequence_id = 371;

exit;

EOF`

echo $MSG_CLOB

How many characters of data does Unix Variable hold ?

How to store entire CLOB value or at least 4000 chars into an Unix Variable. I need to pass this variable as input into another unix command.

Please let me know if you come across this kind of issue.