exportable functions

[Thomas M. Breuel]

It would be nice if Bash supported exportable functions like V9 "sh".
Strings of the form "name=value" in the environment are considered
environment variables, and strings of the form "name(){value}" are
considered environment functions.

Thomas.

[Chet Ramey]

In article <8909080854.AA12325@rice-chex> t...@AI.MIT.EDU (Thomas M. Breuel) writes:

(Don't you love how the AI lab named all of their machines after breakfast
cereals? :-)

Funny, Doug Gwyn and I were having a discussion about this just last
weekend on comp.unix.questions.

The problem with the v9 syntax for exportable functions is that it requires
a C library `getenv()' that ignores the definitions and shells that
understand them (for example, this would choke a "regular" System V /bin/sh
started under bash -- either you would have some very strangely-named shell
variables, or the shell would just get all confused).

Bash does have exportable functions; the syntax is "name=() {value}", which
I think is a nice compromise:

kiwi$ echo $BASH_VERSION
1.03.59
kiwi$ type foo
foo is a function
foo () { echo this is foo }
kiwi$ export foo
kiwi$ bash
kiwi$ foo
this is foo
kiwi$

Chet Ramey
Chet Ramey "We are preparing to think about contemplating
Network Services Group, CWRU preliminary work on plans to develop a
ch...@cwjcc.INS.CWRU.Edu schedule for producing the 10th Edition of
the Unix Programmers Manual." -- Andrew Hume

[Brian Fox]

From: t...@ai.mit.edu (Thomas M. Breuel)
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 89 04:54:05 EDT

Bash 1.03 can export functions to other bashes.

Upon reading in the environment, if a string of the form "name=() {" is
found, then that is a function definition. Perhaps I can support the
other syntax as well.

toplevel$ foo () { echo bar }
toplevel$ export foo
toplevel$ printenv foo
foo=() { echo bar }
toplevel$ bash
bash$ type foo
foo is a function
foo () { echo bar }

Brian Fox