Re: eval doesn't close file descriptor?

[Pierre Gaston]

On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 1:54 AM, <matei.david@gmail.com> wrote:

> With the script below, I'd expect any fd pointing to /dev/null to be
> closed when the second llfd() is executed. Surprisingly, fd 3 is closed,
> but fd 10 is now open, pointing to /dev/null, as if eval copied it instead
> of closing it. Is this a bug?
>
> Thanks,
> M
>
>
> $ bash -c 'llfd () { ls -l /proc/$BASHPID/fd/; }; x=3; eval "exec
> $x>/dev/null"; llfd; eval "llfd $x>&-"'
> total 0
> lrwx------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 0 -> /dev/pts/2
> lrwx------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 1 -> /dev/pts/2
> lrwx------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 2 -> /dev/pts/2
> l-wx------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 3 -> /dev/null
> lr-x------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 8 -> /proc/4520/auxv
> total 0
> lrwx------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 0 -> /dev/pts/2
> lrwx------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 1 -> /dev/pts/2
> l-wx------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 10 -> /dev/null
> lrwx------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 2 -> /dev/pts/2
> lr-x------ 1 matei matei 64 Feb 11 18:36 8 -> /proc/4520/auxv
> $ bash --version
> GNU bash, version 4.2.24(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
> Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <
> http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
>
> This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
> There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
> $
>

Note that the same happens without using eval:
$ llfd 3>&-
total 0
lrwx------ 1 pgas pgas 64 Feb 12 08:00 0 -> /dev/pts/0
lrwx------ 1 pgas pgas 64 Feb 12 08:00 1 -> /dev/pts/0
l-wx------ 1 pgas pgas 64 Feb 12 08:00 10 -> /dev/null
lrwx------ 1 pgas pgas 64 Feb 12 08:00 2 -> /dev/pts/0
lrwx------ 1 pgas pgas 64 Feb 12 08:00 255 -> /dev/pts/0

But you need to consider what process you are examining, you use a function
and you examine the file descriptors of the process where this function
runs.

A function runs in the same process as the parent shell, if it simply
closes 3 then there will be no more fd opened on >/dev/null in the parent
shell when the function returns
So what bash does is a little juggling with the file descriptors, moving 3
temporarily to be able to restore it.