Re: test -v for array does not work as documented

From	Chet Ramey <chet.ramey@case.edu>
Newsgroups	gnu.bash.bug
Subject	Re: test -v for array does not work as documented
Date	2020-02-23 11:27 -0500
Organization	ITS, Case Western Reserve University
Message-ID	<mailman.1445.1582474983.2412.bug-bash@gnu.org> (permalink)
References	<mailman.4206.1582208094.2410.bug-bash@gnu.org> <w6gh7zlz4de.fsf@kph.uni-mainz.de> <a07dd152-b50a-a77b-13c1-fc559b053fdd@case.edu> <25b3fccb-151b-0712-76f1-5b19ffcce1d9@passchier.net> <9a084bb5-2362-b140-f3e8-9e18a0f1cac6@case.edu>

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On 2/21/20 3:31 AM, pepa65 wrote:
> On 21/02/2020 02.37, Chet Ramey wrote:
>> It's unset because it doesn't have a value, but it retains the `local'
>> attribute so it stays local if subsequently assigned one.
> 
> Is there any reason the local attribute cannot be unset? If it would be
> possible then the "declare/typeset -p" would return 1 when the variable
> doesn't exist.

There have been several umm...passionate discussions about this. The idea
is that a local variable that's unset should stay local (and unset) until
the function returns instead of `uncovering' a variable at a previous
scope.

Think about dynamic scoping and its effects on variable visibility.

> By the way, it seems that `local -p var` doesn't work like 'declare -p
> var` even though `help local` suggests it should.

How so? Do you mean that declare -p var in a function will show different
variables?

-- 
``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/

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Re: test -v for array does not work as documented Chet Ramey <chet.ramey@case.edu> - 2020-02-23 11:27 -0500

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