> You've made contradictory statements here. I don't see how.
> First you said you wanted to put it into your *environment*. Yes. > That would cause shell scripts to see it and exhibit a change in behavior. Only if the -i option is not implemented. If it is, there will be zero change in behavior whether BASH_SOURCE_PATH is set or not. Only if the script explicitly passes -i to source will the behavior change. > Next you said you would like to set it in your .bashrc file. > That's totally different. How is it different? If I export a variable in .bashrc, and bash reads and evaluates that file at startup, then that variable gets exported to the shell and all processes spawned by it. > Setting it in .bashrc *without* putting it into the > environment (no export) is "safe". It will only affect > your interactive shell, and not any scripts that you run. I know. I'm just saying it doesn't have to be that way. I'm saying that in addition to it being safe if unset or unexported, it could _also_ be made safe if exported. The -i option provides that safety by requiring that source code be changed in order to enable it. Existing code will never be impacted by the feature whether the variable is set or not, simply because they do not pass -i to the source builtin. -- Matheus
