Re: Fwd: nounset option and arrays

[Chet Ramey]

> In the following example, I was expecting var2 not to be seen as an unbound 
> variable after it was declared.  Wouldn't it be more consistent with the 
> treatment of var1 not to issue the unbound variable error in this case?  What 
> is the rationale behind the current behavior?
> 
>     bash-3.2$ shopt -s -o nounset
>     bash-3.2$ declare var1
>     bash-3.2$ echo $var1
> 
>     bash-3.2$ declare -a var2
>     bash-3.2$ echo $var2
>     bash: var2: unbound variable
>     bash-3.2$ echo ${var2[@]}
>     bash: var2[@]: unbound variable

The bug is actually that the reference to var1 doesn't cause the shell to
exit.  `declare' creates invisible "placeholder" variables that don't
actually exist until they're given a value.  Until they have a value, they
should be treated as if they're unset.

Bash-4.0 treats both cases (array and scalar) as unset.

Chet
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer

Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/