Re: simple prob?

[Phi Debian]

On Fri, Jul 2, 2021 at 9:24 AM Alex fxmbsw7 Ratchev <fxmbsw7@gmail.com>
wrote:

> jobsn=( $( jobs -p ) ) jobsn=${jobsn[@]}
>

This give
PW$ jobsn=( $( jobs -p ) ) jobsn=${jobsn[@]}
PW$ echo $jobsn
3644 3645 3646 3647

I guess you meant  jobsn=${#jobsn[@]}
                                             ^ You missed the '#'

Yet there are some left over
PW$ jobsn=( $( jobs -p ) ) jobsn=${#jobsn[@]}
PW$ echo ${jobsn[@]}
4 3645 3646 3647

So it is not clean, and the OP want a function with a named output arg.

Yet to elaborate on your technic may be this one is a little cleaner

PW$ jobsn=$(printf '%c' $(jobs -p)) jobsn=${#jobsn} ; echo $jobsn
4