Running commands from array in a child bash script

bengoavs · 10-26-2007, 11:20 AM

Hi guys, kind of a newbie question, so I apologize in advance.
First I tried to export an array from one script to it's child, and I figured it's not supported in bash (would be happy if someone can correct me). So I pass the array cells one by one. It works for all commands except for those with redirection signs (| > etc.), see example and error below. Your help is appreciated!!

main.sh:
CMDS=("ls -l > /tmp/log")
~/child.sh "${CMDS[0]}"

child.sh:
for i in "$@"
do
if [ "$i" ]; then
echo "$i"
$i
fi
done

./main.sh
ls -l > /tmp/log
ls: >: No such file or directory
ls: /tmp/log: No such file or directory

matthewg42 · 10-26-2007, 12:33 PM

child.sh takes each of the strings passed on the command line and tries to execute them as a program. However, it does not split them with IFS. You want to "eval $i", like this

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# this is child.sh

for i in "$@"
do
        if [ "$i" != "" ]; then
                echo "$i"
                eval $i
        fi
done

By the way, you can put ode fragments in [code] tags - this will preserve formatting and use a fixed width font to aid readability.

Regarding he exporting of arrays: environment variables are passed between processes as an array of strings only.

bengoavs · 10-26-2007, 02:16 PM

Thanks a

Code:

LOT

Man !