On Thu, 12 Feb 2009, Shane Hathaway wrote:
This is a problem with bash - that is if one function calls another the
value of the local variables are seen.
It's a surprise, but it follows the bash documentation.
$ help local
local: local name[=value] ...
Create a local variable called NAME, and give it VALUE. LOCAL
can only be used within a function; it makes the variable NAME
have a visible scope restricted to that function and its children.
The "... and its children" specification is different from most
programming languages that I'm familiar with. I guess bash searches the
call stack for variables, rather than use scoping rules like most
languages. Another reason not to write anything complex in bash. :-)
This is just like Perl's "local", which provides temporary scoping to a
global variable. It's not much used, with "my" being more what people are
usually looking for. See man perlsub for details, section "Temporary
Values via local()".
I wouldn't be surprised if bash borrowed the behavior & the name from
Perl.
Jon
--
Jon Jensen
End Point Corporation
http://www.endpoint.com/
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