How to modify a global variable within a function in bash?

Question

I\'m working with this:

GNU bash, version 4.1.2(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu)

I have a script like below:

#!/bin/bas         


        

Answer 1

What you are doing, you are executing test1

$(test1)

in a sub-shell( child shell ) and Child shells cannot modify anything in parent.

You can find it in bash manual

Please Check: Things results in a subshell here

Answer 2

You can always use an alias:

alias next='printf "blah_%02d" $count;count=$((count+1))'

Answer 3

When you use a command substitution (ie the $(...) construct), you are creating a subshell. Subshells inherit variables from their parent shells, but this only works one way - a subshell cannot modify the environment of its parent shell. Your variable e is set within a subshell, but not the parent shell. There are two ways to pass values from a subshell to its parent. First, you can output something to stdout, then capture it with a command substitution:

myfunc() {
    echo "Hello"
}

var="$(myfunc)"

echo "$var"

Gives:

Hello

For a numerical value from 0-255, you can use return to pass the number as the exit status:

mysecondfunc() {
    echo "Hello"
    return 4
}

var="$(mysecondfunc)"
num_var=$?

echo "$var - num is $num_var"

Gives:

Hello - num is 4

Answer 4

It's because command substitution is performed in a subshell, so while the subshell inherits the variables, changes to them are lost when the subshell ends.

Reference:

Command substitution, commands grouped with parentheses, and asynchronous commands are invoked in a subshell environment that is a duplicate of the shell environment

Answer 5

I had a similar problem, when I wanted to automatically remove temp files I had created. The solution I came up with was not to use command substitution, but rather to pass the name of the variable, that should take the final result, into the function. E.g.

#! /bin/bash

remove_later=""
new_tmp_file() {
    file=$(mktemp)
    remove_later="$remove_later $file"
    eval $1=$file
}
remove_tmp_files() {
    rm $remove_later
}
trap remove_tmp_files EXIT

new_tmp_file tmpfile1
new_tmp_file tmpfile2

So, in your case that would be:

#!/bin/bash

e=2

function test1() {
  e=4
  eval $1="hello"
}

test1 ret

echo "$ret"
echo "$e"

Works and has no restrictions on the "return value".

Answer 6

A solution to this problem, without having to introduce complex functions and heavily modify the original one, is to store the value in a temporary file and read / write it when needed.

This approach helped me greatly when I had to mock a bash function called multiple times in a bats test case.

For example, you could have:

# Usage read_value path_to_tmp_file
function read_value {
  cat "${1}"
}

# Usage: set_value path_to_tmp_file the_value
function set_value {
  echo "${2}" > "${1}"
}
#----

# Original code:

function test1() {
  e=4
  set_value "${tmp_file}" "${e}"
  echo "hello"
}


# Create the temp file
# Note that tmp_file is available in test1 as well
tmp_file=$(mktemp)

# Your logic
e=2
# Store the value
set_value "${tmp_file}" "${e}"

# Run test1
test1

# Read the value modified by test1
e=$(read_value "${tmp_file}")
echo "$e"

The drawback is that you might need multiple temp files for different variables. And also you might need to issue a sync command to persist the contents on the disk between one write and read operations.