Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2023 21:04:38 -0400
From: Greg Wooledge <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
| The first assignment is done before the value of "m" is used in the second
| assignment.
Note that that is a shell specific feature, applies to bash, but
not necessarily to other shells (some will do it that way, others won't).
| This feature is commonly used in the following constructs:
| extract=${input#*<} extract=${extract%>*}
| data=$(cat file; printf x) data=${data%x}
which would be made truly portable if written
extract=${input#*<}; extract=${extract%>*}
data=$(cat file; printf x); data=${data%x}
Is there really that much to be gained by omitting a semicolon
in a sequence like that? The only time it matters if if the
assignments in question are prefixes to some other command. Rather
than relying upon that kind of non-portable construct, you'd be better
to restructure the code, and avoid the issue, but this is very rare
except when someone is deliberately trying to make things non-portable.
kre
