Re: Dashes in function names: Undocumented?

[Chet Ramey]

On 8/13/20 3:32 AM, Robert Elz wrote:
>     Date:        Wed, 12 Aug 2020 11:05:40 -0400
>     From:        Eli Schwartz <eschwartz@archlinux.org>
>     Message-ID:  <f53f8a84-ac66-6d61-7066-01c14e8f2ce4@archlinux.org>
> 
> 
>   | When in posix mode, fname must be a valid shell name and may not be the
>   | name of one of the POSIX special builtins. In default mode, a function
>   | name can be any unquoted shell word that does not contain $.
> 
> There's no need for the posix mode test here, in posix mode a function
> with the same name as a special builtin won't be found (the special builtin
> is located first) but it doesn't need to be an error to define it (posix
> does not require that).

It's an application restriction that bash chooses to enforce: "the
application shall ensure that it is a name (see XBD Name) and that it is
not the name of a special built-in utility."

It's a non-fatal error; some shells, like dash and ksh93, make it a fatal
syntax error to define a function with the same name as a special builtin.

Chet
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/