Re: Document what's allowed in function names

[Chet Ramey]

> Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu
> 
> Bash Version: 4.2
> Patch Level: 8
> Release Status: release
> 
> Description:
>       man bash is currently lacking information on what is allowed for 
> function
>       names. It implies name with name () compound-command [redirection] and
>       at the start of the manual there is:
> 
>       name   A word consisting only of alphanumeric characters and 
> underscores,
>       and beginning with an alphabetic character or an underscore.  Also 
> referred
>       to as an identifier.
> 
>       In reality the rules for function names are much more loose. For example
>       hyphen and forward slash are allowed. But there are still some 
> restrictions:
>       bash: `aa\'foo': not a valid identifier

It was a mistake to allow such characters in function names (`unset' doesn't
work to unset them without forcing -f, for instance).  We're stuck with them
for backwards compatibility, but I don't have to encourage their use.

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/