You cannot export arrays.

The easiest way to pass an array is to convert it to a scalar variable, with the elements separated by a character not used in any of the elements. For example, this uses a newline:

Code:

array_separator='
' ## adjust as needed
array=( a b c )
array_contents=$( printf "%s$array_separator" "${array[@]}" )
export array_separator array_contents

To convert it back to an array:

Code:

oIFS=$IFS
IFS=$array_separator
array=( $array_contents )
IFS=$oIFS