Re: output of `export -p' seems misleading

[Chet Ramey]

On 11/9/12 4:09 AM, wuya wrote:
> Hi all,
>    1. why `export -p' output something in the format `declare -x foo="bar"'

Because the declare form is bash's `native' notation.  If you're in Posix
mode, the output is in the form of `export' commands.

>    2. this format gives user an implication that by executing these `declare' 
> commands, all those variables got exported, but this is only partly true as 
> it fails in functions.

That's not quite true.  The documentation implies, though maybe not as
clearly as possible, that each name argument to declare/export/readonly is
treated as a variable name by default.  The -f option is what you need to
refer to functions.

>    3. As in bash 4.2, -g option is added. why not change output format of 
> `export -p' to `declare -g foo="bar"'?

Because they are not at all the same thing.  -x refers to the environment.
-g changes bash's internal variable scoping.

Chet
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/