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Full Discussion: [BASH - KSH] Passing array to a function
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting [BASH - KSH] Passing array to a function Post 302186358 by ripat on Thursday 17th of April 2008 03:21:18 AM
Old 04-17-2008
Hi Perderabo,

With my GNU bash, version 3.2.25 it only returns the array name "colors" but not its contents. I have also tried this trick:

Code:
function print_array {
    array_name="$1[*]"
    echo ${!array_name}
}

It returns the array elements (on one line) but the local array doesn't exists as such as I can not access it by doing something like:

Code:
function print_array {
    array_name="$1"
    echo ${!array_name[1]}
}

This always return the first element "pink" [0]. Of course I could access the array elements by doing:
Code:
function print_array {
    array_name="$1[0]"
    echo ${!array_name}

    array_name="$1[1]"
    echo ${!array_name}

    array_name="$1[2]"
    echo ${!array_name}
}

Which is rather inelegant and clumsy. All I wanted is to create a *local* copy of the array whose name is passed to the function as positional parameter ($1 $2 ....). By the way, how can I copy an array without looping throught it and assigning values one by one. Of course, the following doesn't work:
Code:
colors=('Pink' 'Light Gray' 'Green')
echo ${colors[@]}

copy_colors=$colors
echo ${copy_colors[@]}

# returns:
# Pink Light Gray Green (3 elements)
# Pink

copy_colors=(${colors[*]})
echo ${copy_colors[*]}
echo ${copy_colors[1]}

# "Light Gray" is split:
# Pink Light Gray Green (4 elements!)
# Light

I think I start to understand why members of this forum perfer ksh :=)
Last edited by ripat; 04-17-2008 at 08:21 AM..
 

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

lksh

LKSH(1) 						    BSD General Commands Manual 						   LKSH(1)

NAME

     lksh -- Legacy Korn shell built on mksh

SYNOPSIS

     lksh [-+abCefhiklmnprUuvXx] [-+o opt] [-c string | -s | file [args ...]]

DESCRIPTION

     lksh is a command interpreter intended exclusive for running legacy shell scripts.  It is built on mksh; refer to its manual page for details
     on the scripting language.

LEGACY MODE

     lksh has the following differences from mksh:

     o	 lksh is not suitable for use as /bin/sh.

     o	 There is no explicit support for interactive use, nor any command line editing code.  Hence, lksh is not suitable as a user's login
	 shell, either; use mksh instead.

     o	 The KSH_VERSION string identifies lksh as ``LEGACY KSH'' instead of ``MIRBSD KSH''.

     o	 Some mksh specific extensions are missing; specifically, the -T command-line option.

     o	 lksh always uses traditional mode for constructs like:

	       $ set -- $(getopt ab:c "$@")
	       $ echo $?

	 POSIX mandates this to show 0, but traditional mode passes through the errorlevel from the getopt(1) command.

     o	 lksh, unlike AT&T UNIX ksh, does not keep file descriptors > 2 private.

     o	 lksh parses leading-zero numbers as octal (base 8).

     o	 Integers use the host C environment's long type, not int32_t.	Unsigned arithmetic is done using unsigned long, not uint32_t.	Neither
	 value limits nor wraparound is guaranteed.  Dividing the largest negative number by -1 is Undefined Behaviour (but might work on 32-bit
	 and 64-bit long types).

     o	 lksh only offers the traditional ten file descriptors to scripts.

SEE ALSO

     mksh(1)

     https://www.mirbsd.org/mksh.htm

     https://www.mirbsd.org/ksh-chan.htm

CAVEATS

     lksh tries to make a cross between a legacy bourne/posix compatibl-ish shell and a legacy pdksh-alike but ``legacy'' is not exactly speci-
     fied.  Parsing numbers with leading zero digits or ``0x'' is relatively recent in all pdksh derivates, but supported here for completeness.
     It might make sense to make this a run-time option, but that might also be overkill.

     The set built-in command does not have all options one would expect from a full-blown mksh or pdksh.

     Talk to the MirOS development team using the mailing list at <miros-mksh@mirbsd.org> or the #!/bin/mksh (or #ksh) IRC channel at
     irc.freenode.net (Port 6697 SSL, 6667 unencrypted) if you need any further quirks or assistance, and consider migrating your legacy scripts
     to work with mksh instead of requiring lksh.

MirBSD								 February 11, 2013							    MirBSD
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