bash export command

Question

I am encountering a strange problem with my 64bit Ubuntu - on the export command.

Basically, I have got a VM installation on Ubuntu on my Win7, and I am trying to pa

Answer 1

export is a Bash builtin, echo is an executable in your $PATH. So export is interpreted by Bash as is, without spawning a new process.

You need to get Bash to interpret your command, which you can pass as a string with the -c option:

bash -c "export foo=bar; echo \$foo"

ALSO:

Each invocation of bash -c starts with a fresh environment. So something like:

bash -c "export foo=bar"
bash -c "echo \$foo"

will not work. The second invocation does not remember foo.

Instead, you need to chain commands separated by ; in a single invocation of bash -c:

bash -c "export foo=bar; echo \$foo"