Re: Issue declaring an array via a variable name

[Hunter Wittenborn]

The
 general consensus seems to be that this isn't really a bug (from what 
I've understood), but it looks like I can use a variable reference to 
solve the issue nevertheless.



Regardless, 
I'm still wanting to almost classify this as a bug (or possibly a 
feature request; it feels like it's getting blurry where it would be at 
this point).







Because; Both of these work:



declare "var"="i"

declare var=("i" "j")



So, in my opinion, this should logically work (from the view of an end user):



declare "var"=("i" "j")





The same issue applies for variables, though seeming to not matter if they're 
in quotes or not for those.



Lastly
 - again, the variable reference issue is seeming to work fairly fine 
for my current use cases. I just don't really want to throw this off as a
 "syntax error" when this quite arguably seems like a bug instead.





---- On Mon, 16 Aug 2021 09:27:55 -0500 Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> wrote 
----


On Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 04:10:31PM +0200, Alex fxmbsw7 Ratchev wrote: 
> i dunno but, i had many testings many times 
> the stable wanted is to enclose the per arg definition in quotes, not like 
> "var"="var" 
> the right dash options is also useful 
 
I don't understand this paragraph at all. 
 
> test=( a b ) t=var 
> declare -ga "$t=( ${test@Q} )" 
 
I believe this is what you're trying to show us: 
 
unicorn:~$ declare -ga "${t}=( ${test@Q} )" 
unicorn:~$ declare -ga "${t}"=( ${test@Q} ) 
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `(' 
 
And likewise, 
 
unicorn:~$ declare -ga "$t=( ${test@Q} )" 
unicorn:~$ declare -ga "$t"=( ${test@Q} ) 
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `(' 
 
There is something subtle happening there, at the parsing level.  Chet's 
explanation (quoted below) may suffice for some. 
 
For my own purposes, "if it hurts, don't do that" is good enough. 
But that's just me. 
 
> the same style i found secure and data preserving such alike: 
> "list=( $( ls -Ac --quoting-style=shell-escape ) )" 
 
That has nothing to do with the issue that started this thread.  You've 
got a plain old compound array assignment, with a command substitution 
inside it.  The variable on the left hand side ("list") is a valid 
shell identifier.  There are no surprises here. 
 
> On Mon, Aug 16, 2021, 15:57 Chet Ramey <mailto:chet.ramey@case.edu> wrote: 
> > It's a syntax error. There is an unquoted operator (`(') where the grammar 
> > does not allow it. 
> > 
> > `declare' does allow compound array assignment statements as arguments, and 
> > the parser accommodates this as long as two conditions hold: the parser can 
> > detect that the first word of a simple command is `declare' and the 
> > argument is a valid assignment statement. In this case, the second fails, 
> > since `"${variable}"' is not a valid shell identifier. That renders the 
> > argument not a valid assignment statement. 
 





---

Hunter Wittenborn

https://www.hunterwittenborn.com

https://github.com/hwittenborn