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[off-topic] ksh local vars [was: Unset array doesn't work]


From: Martijn Dekker
Subject: [off-topic] ksh local vars [was: Unset array doesn't work]
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2018 14:49:27 +0000
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.11; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.6.0

Op 05-03-18 om 13:57 schreef Greg Wooledge:
> On Sat, Mar 03, 2018 at 08:24:06PM +0900, Koichi Murase wrote:
>> - Note: ksh seems not support local variables. "typeset" in function
>> scopes defines a global variable, and "unset" removes the global
>> variable.
> 
> "Real ksh" has two different kinds of functions -- ones declared with
> "foo()" and ones declared with "function foo".  They have different
> treatment of local variables, and the ksh man page does not clearly
> (at least to me) describe the difference.

You have to distinguish between two kinds of ksh here.

In the old "real ksh", AT&T ksh88 (which is closed source and only in
current use as /usr/xpg4/bin/sh on Solaris), functions defined with
"foo()" and with "function foo" have identical behaviour with regards to
local variables. They have dynamic scoping, that is, if x calls y, then
y has access to x's local variables. This is the model that every other
current shell, including bash, emulates -- each with its own particular
set of quirks and gotchas, of course. That includes the "ksh clones"
(pdksh, mksh, et al) which are all ksh88 clones.

In the current "real ksh", AT&T ksh93, things changed in radical and
incompatible ways. Functions defined with "foo()" don't have local
variables at all. Functions defined with "function foo" have a new model
for local variables: static scoping. That is, if x calls y, then y does
*not* have access to x's local variables. In static scoping, "unset" in
a local scope can never influence the global scope. No other shell to
date has emulated the ksh93 model.

HTH,

- M.



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