I need your help with a bash >= 4 script I'm writing.
I am retrieving some files from remote hosts to back them up.
I have a for loop that iterate through the hosts and for each one tests connection and the start a function that retrieves the various files.
My problem is that I need to know what gone wrong (and if), so I am trying to store OK or KO values in an array and parse it later.
This is the code:
...
for remote_host in $hosts ; do
short_host=$(echo "$remote_host" | grep -o '^[^.]\+')
declare -A cluster
printf "INFO: Testing connectivity to %s... " "$remote_host"
if ssh -q "$remote_host" exit ; then
printf "OK!\n"
cluster[$short_host]="Reacheable"
mkdir "$short_host"
echo "INFO: Collecting files ..."
declare -A ${short_host}
objects1="/etc/krb5.conf /etc/passwd /etc/group /etc/fstab /etc/sudoers /etc/shadow"
for obj in ${objects1} ; do
if file_retrieve "$user" "$remote_host" "$obj" ; then
-> ${short_host}=["$obj"]=OK
else
${short_host}=["$obj"]=KO
fi
done
...
So I'm using an array named cluster to list if the nodes were reacheable, and another array - named after the short name of the node - to list OK or KO for single files.
On execution, I got the following error (line 130 is the line I marked with the arrow above):
./test.sh: line 130: ubuntu01=[/etc/krb5.conf]=OK: command not found
I think this is a synthax error for sure, but I can't fix it. I tried a bunch of combinations without success.
Thanks for your help.
Since the array name is contained in a variable short_list, you need eval to make the assignment work:
${short_host}=["$obj"]=OK
Change it to:
eval ${short_host}=["$obj"]=OK
eval ${short_host}=["$obj"]=OK
Similar posts:
Single line while loop updating array
Just some background, I have a file with 1000 servers in it new line delimted. I have to read them to an array the run about 5 commands over SSH. I have been using heredoc notation but that seems to fail. Currently I get an error saying the host isn't recognized.
IFS='\n' read -d '' -r -a my_arr < file
my_arr=()
for i in "${my_arr[#]}"; do
ssh "$1" bash -s << "EOF"
echo "making back up of some file"
cp /path/to/file /path/to/file.bak
exit
EOF
done
I get output that lists the first server but then all the ones in the array as well. I know that I am missing a redirect for STDIN that causes this.
Thanks for the help.
Do you need an array? What is wrong with:
while read -r host
do
ssh "$host" bash -s << "EOF"
echo "making back up of some file"
cp /path/to/file /path/to/file.bak
EOF
done < file
To be clear -- the problem here, and the only problem present in the code actually included in your question, is that you're using $1 inside your loop, whereas you specified $i as the variable that contains the entry being iterated over on each invocation of the loop.
That is to say: ssh "$1" needs to instead by ssh "$i".
Bash script to create multiple arrays from csv with unknown columns.
I am trying to write a script to compare two csv files with similar columns. I need it to locate the matching column from the other csv and compare any differences. The kicker is I would like the script to be dynamic to allow any number of columns to be entered and it still be able to function. I thought I had a good plan to solve this but turns out I'm running into syntax errors. Here is a sample of a csv I need to compare.
IP address, Notes, Nmap-SSH, Nmap-SMTP, Nmap-HTTP, Nmap-HTTPS,
10.0.0.1, , open, closed, open, open,
10.0.0.2, , closed, open, closed, closed,
When I read the csv file I was planning to look for "IF column == open; then; populate this column's array with the IP address" This would have given me 4 lists in this scenario with the IPs that were listening on said port. I could then compare that to my security device configuration to make sure it was configured properly. Finally to the meat, here is what I thought would accomplish creating the arrays for me to search later. However I ran into a snag when I tried to use a variable inside an array name. Can my syntax be corrected or is there just a better way to do this sort of thing?
#!/bin/bash
#
#
# This script compares config_cleaned_<ip>.txt output against ext_web_env.csv and outputs the differences
#
#
# Read from ext_web_env.csv file and create Array
#
FILENAME=./tmp/ext_web_env.csv
#
index=0
#
while read line
do
# How many columns are in the .csv?
varEnvCol=$(echo $line | awk -F, '{print NF}')
echo "columns = $varEnvCol"
# While loop to create array for each column
while [ $varEnvCol != 2 ]
do
# Checks to see if port is open; if so then add IP address to array
varPortCon=$(echo $line | awk -F, -v i=$varEnvCol '{print $i}')
if [ $varPortCon = "open" ]
then
arr$varEnvCol[$index]="$(echo $line | awk -F, '{print $1}')"
# I get this error message "line29 : arr8[194]=10.0.0.194: command not found"
fi
echo "arrEnv$varEnvCol is: ${arr$varEnvCol[#]}"
# Another error but not as important since I am using this to debug "line31: arr$varEnvCol is: ${arr$varEnvCol[#]}: bad substitution"
varEnvCol=$(($varEnvCol - 1))
done
index=$(($index + 1 ))
done < $FILENAME
UPDATE
I also tried using the eval command since all the data will be populated by other scripts.
but am getting this error message:
./compare.sh: line 41: arr8[83]=10.0.0.83: command not found
Here is my new code for this example:
if [[ $varPortCon = *'open'* ]]
then
eval arr\$varEnvCol[$index]=$(echo $line | awk -F, '{print $1}')
fi
arr$varEnvCol[$index]="$(...)"
doesn't work the way you expect it to - you cannot assign to shell variables indirectly - via an expression that expands to the variable name - this way.
Your attempted workaround with eval is also flawed - see below.
tl;dr
If you use bash 4.3 or above:
declare -n targetArray="arr$varEnvCol"
targetArray[index]=$(echo $line | awk -F, '{print $1}')
bash 4.2 or earlier:
declare "arr$varEnvCol"[index]="$(echo $line | awk -F, '{print $1}')"
Caveat: This will work in your particular situation, but may fail subtly in others; read on for details, including a more robust, but cumbersome alternative based on read.
The eval-based solution mentioned by #shellter in a since-deleted comment is problematic not only for security reasons (as they mentioned), but also because it can get quite tricky with respect to quoting; for completeness, here's the eval-based solution:
eval "arr$varEnvCol[index]"='$(echo $line | awk -F, '\''{print $1}'\'')'
See below for an explanation.
Assign to a bash array variable indirectly:
bash 4.3+: use declare -n to effectively create an alias ('nameref') of another variable
This is by far the best option, if available:
declare -n targetArray="arr$varEnvCol"
targetArray[index]=$(echo $line | awk -F, '{print $1}')
declare -n effectively allows you to refer to a variable by another name (whether that variable is an array or not), and the name to create an alias for can be the result of an expression (an expanded string), as demonstrated.
bash 4.2-: there are several options, each with tradeoffs
NOTE: With non-array variables, the best approach is to use printf -v. Since this question is about array variables, this approach is not discussed further.
[most robust, but cumbersome]: use read:
IFS=$'\n' read -r -d '' "arr$varEnvCol"[index] <<<"$(echo $line | awk -F, '{print $1}')"
IFS=$'\n' ensures that that leading and trailing whitespace in each input line is left intact.
-r prevents interpretation of \ chars. in the input.
-d '' ensures that ALL input is captured, even multi-line.
Note, however, that any trailing \n chars. are stripped.
If you're only interested in the first line of input, omit -d ''
"arr$varEnvCol"[index] expands to the variable - array element, in this case - to assign to; note that referring to variable index inside an array subscript does NOT need the $ prefix, because subscripts are evaluated in arithmetic context, where the prefix is optional.
<<< - a so-called here-string - sends its argument to stdin, where read takes its input from.
[simplest, but may break]: use declare:
declare "arr$varEnvCol"[index]="$(echo $line | awk -F, '{print $1}')"
(This is slightly counter-intuitive, in that declare is meant to declare, not modify a variable, but it works in bash 3.x and 4.x, with the constraints noted below.)
Works fine OUTSIDE a FUNCTION - whether the array was explicitly declared with declare or not.
Caveat: INSIDE a function, only works with LOCAL variables - you cannot reference shell-global variables (variables declared outside the function) from inside a function that way. Attempting to do so invariably creates a LOCAL variable ECLIPSING the shell-global variable.
[insecure and tricky]: use eval:
eval "arr$varEnvCol[index]"='$(echo $line | awk -F, '\''{print $1}'\'')'
CAVEAT: Only use eval if you fully control the contents of the string being evaluated; eval will execute any command contained in a string, with potentially unwanted results.
Understanding what variable references/command substitutions get expanded when is nontrivial - the safest approach is to delay expansion so that they happen when eval executes rather than immediate expansion that happens when arguments are passed to eval.
For a variable assignment statement to succeed, the RHS (right-hand side) must eventually evaluate to a single token - either unquoted without whitespace or quoted (optionally with whitespace).
The above example uses single quotes to delay expansion; thus, the string passed mustn't contain single quotes directly and thus is broken into multiple parts with literal ' chars. spliced in as \'.
Also note that the LHS (left-hand side) of the assignment statement passed to eval must be a double-quoted string - using an unquoted string with selective quoting of $ won't work, curiously:
OK: eval "arr$varEnvCol[index]"=...
FAILS: eval arr\$varEnvCol[index]=...
In the bash shell, arrays can be easily quoted with declare -p, then evaled later to return them to normal. This seems acceptable for passing an array (as part of a script) to a remote machine over SSH.
The problem is, going the other way across the wire I don't want to expect the same level of trust. If the remote machine was compromised, an infection could spread to the local machine through unsanitised eval statements.
Currently, to pass arrays between machines I use an approach like this:
#!/bin/bash
# Define the modules we expect to find installed on the remote machine
expected_modules=(foo-module bar 'baz 2.0')
# SSH into the remote machine, send the arrays back and forth with "declare -p"
unparsed_missing_modules=$(ssh remote-machine /bin/bash << EOF
check_for_module() {
# Placeholder so that this can be tested locally
case \$1 in
foo*) true;;
*) false;;
esac
}
$(declare -p expected_modules)
missing_modules=()
for module in "\${expected_modules[#]}"; do
if ! check_for_module "\$module"; then
missing_modules+=( "\$module" )
fi
done
declare -p missing_modules
EOF
)
# Unpack the result (this is what I want to find an alternative to)
eval "$unparsed_missing_modules"
# Do something with the result after unpacking into an array
for module in "${missing_modules[#]}"; do
echo "Warning: Remote machine is missing $module" >&2
done
The primary insecurity in this script is near the end, when the output of a ssh session is passed directly to eval. How can I sanitise this input in bash?
The generic, safe answer is to NUL-delimit your array's entries, pass the literal NUL-delimited data over stdout, and use a while read loop to interpret it.
Observe:
get_remote_array() {
local args
local hostname=$1; shift
printf -v args '%q ' "$#"
ssh "$hostname" "bash -s $args" <<'EOF'
# in real-world use, print something more useful than the arguments we were started with
# ...but for here, this demonstrates the point:
printf '%s\0' "$#"
EOF
}
array=( )
while IFS= read -r -d ''; do
array+=( "$REPLY" )
done < <(get_remote_array "localhost" \
$'I\ncontain\nnewlines' \
'I want to $(touch /tmp/security-fail)' \
"'"'I REALLY want to $(touch /tmp/security-fail), even in single quotes'"'")
echo "---- Shell-escaped content"
printf '%q\n' "${array[#]}"
echo "---- Unescaped content"
printf '<<%s>>\n' "${array[#]}"
This demonstration passes potentially malicious data in both directions, and demonstrates that it survives the round-trip unharmed.
I can not export an array from a bash script to another bash script like this:
export myArray[0]="Hello"
export myArray[1]="World"
When I write like this there are no problem:
export myArray=("Hello" "World")
For several reasons I need to initialize my array into multiple lines. Do you have any solution?
Array variables may not (yet) be exported.
From the manpage of bash version 4.1.5 under ubuntu 10.04.
The following statement from Chet Ramey (current bash maintainer as of 2011) is probably the most official documentation about this "bug":
There isn't really a good way to encode an array variable into the environment.
http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-bash#gnu.org/msg01774.html
TL;DR: exportable arrays are not directly supported up to and including bash-5.1, but you can (effectively) export arrays in one of two ways:
a simple modification to the way the child scripts are invoked
use an exported function to store the array initialisation, with a simple modification to the child scripts
Or, you can wait until bash-4.3 is released (in development/RC state as of February 2014, see ARRAY_EXPORT in the Changelog). Update: This feature is not enabled in 4.3. If you define ARRAY_EXPORT when building, the build will fail. The author has stated it is not planned to complete this feature.
The first thing to understand is that the bash environment (more properly command execution environment) is different to the POSIX concept of an environment. The POSIX environment is a collection of un-typed name=value pairs, and can be passed from a process to its children in various ways (effectively a limited form of IPC).
The bash execution environment is effectively a superset of this, with typed variables, read-only and exportable flags, arrays, functions and more. This partly explains why the output of set (bash builtin) and env or printenv differ.
When you invoke another bash shell you're starting a new process, you loose some bash state. However, if you dot-source a script, the script is run in the same environment; or if you run a subshell via ( ) the environment is also preserved (because bash forks, preserving its complete state, rather than reinitialising using the process environment).
The limitation referenced in #lesmana's answer arises because the POSIX environment is simply name=value pairs with no extra meaning, so there's no agreed way to encode or format typed variables, see below for an interesting bash quirk regarding functions , and an upcoming change in bash-4.3(proposed array feature abandoned).
There are a couple of simple ways to do this using declare -p (built-in) to output some of the bash environment as a set of one or more declare statements which can be used reconstruct the type and value of a "name". This is basic serialisation, but with rather less of the complexity some of the other answers imply. declare -p preserves array indexes, sparse arrays and quoting of troublesome values. For simple serialisation of an array you could just dump the values line by line, and use read -a myarray to restore it (works with contiguous 0-indexed arrays, since read -a automatically assigns indexes).
These methods do not require any modification of the script(s) you are passing the arrays to.
declare -p array1 array2 > .bash_arrays # serialise to an intermediate file
bash -c ". .bash_arrays; . otherscript.sh" # source both in the same environment
Variations on the above bash -c "..." form are sometimes (mis-)used in crontabs to set variables.
Alternatives include:
declare -p array1 array2 > .bash_arrays # serialise to an intermediate file
BASH_ENV=.bash_arrays otherscript.sh # non-interactive startup script
Or, as a one-liner:
BASH_ENV=<(declare -p array1 array2) otherscript.sh
The last one uses process substitution to pass the output of the declare command as an rc script. (This method only works in bash-4.0 or later: earlier versions unconditionally fstat() rc files and use the size returned to read() the file in one go; a FIFO returns a size of 0, and so won't work as hoped.)
In a non-interactive shell (i.e. shell script) the file pointed to by the BASH_ENV variable is automatically sourced. You must make sure bash is correctly invoked, possibly using a shebang to invoke "bash" explicitly, and not #!/bin/sh as bash will not honour BASH_ENV when in historical/POSIX mode.
If all your array names happen to have a common prefix you can use declare -p ${!myprefix*} to expand a list of them, instead of enumerating them.
You probably should not attempt to export and re-import the entire bash environment using this method, some special bash variables and arrays are read-only, and there can be other side-effects when modifying special variables.
(You could also do something slightly disagreeable by serialising the array definition to an exportable variable, and using eval, but let's not encourage the use of eval ...
$ array=([1]=a [10]="b c")
$ export scalar_array=$(declare -p array)
$ bash # start a new shell
$ eval $scalar_array
$ declare -p array
declare -a array='([1]="a" [10]="b c")'
)
As referenced above, there's an interesting quirk: special support for exporting functions through the environment:
function myfoo() {
echo foo
}
with export -f or set +a to enable this behaviour, will result in this in the (process) environment, visible with printenv:
myfoo=() { echo foo
}
The variable is functionname (or functioname() for backward compatibility) and its value is () { functionbody }.
When a subsequent bash process starts it will recreate a function from each such environment variable. If you peek into the bash-4.2 source file variables.c you'll see variables starting with () { are handled specially. (Though creating a function using this syntax with declare -f is forbidden.) Update: The "shellshock" security issue is related to this feature, contemporary systems may disable automatic function import from the environment as a mitigation.
If you keep reading though, you'll see an #if 0 (or #if ARRAY_EXPORT) guarding code that checks variables starting with ([ and ending with ), and a comment stating "Array variables may not yet be exported". The good news is that in the current development version bash-4.3rc2 the ability to export indexed arrays (not associative) is enabled. This feature is not likely to be enabled, as noted above.
We can use this to create a function which restores any array data required:
% function sharearray() {
array1=(a b c d)
}
% export -f sharearray
% bash -c 'sharearray; echo ${array1[*]}'
So, similar to the previous approach, invoke the child script with:
bash -c "sharearray; . otherscript.sh"
Or, you can conditionally invoke the sharearray function in the child script by adding at some appropriate point:
declare -F sharearray >/dev/null && sharearray
Note there is no declare -a in the sharearray function, if you do that the array is implicitly local to the function, not what is wanted. bash-4.2 supports declare -g that makes a variable declared in a function into a global, so declare -ga can then be used. (Since associative arrays require a declare -A you won't be able to use this method for global associative arrays prior to bash-4.2, from v4.2 declare -Ag will work as hoped.) The GNU parallel documentation has useful variation on this method, see the discussion of --env in the man page.
Your question as phrased also indicates you may be having problems with export itself. You can export a name after you've created or modified it. "exportable" is a flag or property of a variable, for convenience you can also set and export in a single statement. Up to bash-4.2 export expects only a name, either a simple (scalar) variable or function name are supported.
Even if you could (in future) export arrays, exporting selected indexes (a slice) may not be supported (though since arrays are sparse there's no reason it could not be allowed). Though bash also supports the syntax declare -a name[0], the subscript is ignored, and "name" is simply a normal indexed array.
Jeez. I don't know why the other answers made this so complicated. Bash has nearly built-in support for this.
In the exporting script:
myArray=( ' foo"bar ' $'\n''\nbaz)' ) # an array with two nasty elements
myArray="${myArray[#]#Q}" ./importing_script.sh
(Note, the double quotes are necessary for correct handling of whitespace within array elements.)
Upon entry to importing_script.sh, the value of the myArray environment variable comprises these exact 26 bytes:
' foo"bar ' $'\n\\nbaz)'
Then the following will reconstitute the array:
eval "myArray=( ${myArray} )"
CAUTION! Do not eval like this if you cannot trust the source of the myArray environment variable. This trick exhibits the "Little Bobby Tables" vulnerability. Imagine if someone were to set the value of myArray to ) ; rm -rf / #.
The environment is just a collection of key-value pairs, both of which are character strings. A proper solution that works for any kind of array could either
Save each element in a different variable (e.g. MY_ARRAY_0=myArray[0]). Gets complicated because of the dynamic variable names.
Save the array in the file system (declare -p myArray >file).
Serialize all array elements into a single string.
These are covered in the other posts. If you know that your values never contain a certain character (for example |) and your keys are consecutive integers, you can simply save the array as a delimited list:
export MY_ARRAY=$(IFS='|'; echo "${myArray[*]}")
And restore it in the child process:
IFS='|'; myArray=($MY_ARRAY); unset IFS
Based on #mr.spuratic use of BASH_ENV, here I tunnel $# through script -f -c
script -c <command> <logfile> can be used to run a command inside another pty (and process group) but it cannot pass any structured arguments to <command>.
Instead <command> is a simple string to be an argument to the system library call.
I need to tunnel $# of the outer bash into $# of the bash invoked by script.
As declare -p cannot take #, here I use the magic bash variable _ (with a dummy first array value as that will get overwritten by bash). This saves me trampling on any important variables:
Proof of concept:
BASH_ENV=<( declare -a _=("" "$#") && declare -p _ ) bash -c 'set -- "${_[#]:1}" && echo "$#"'
"But," you say, "you are passing arguments to bash -- and indeed I am, but these are a simple string of known character. Here is use by script
SHELL=/bin/bash BASH_ENV=<( declare -a _=("" "$#") && declare -p _ && echo 'set -- "${_[#]:1}"') script -f -c 'echo "$#"' /tmp/logfile
which gives me this wrapper function in_pty:
in_pty() {
SHELL=/bin/bash BASH_ENV=<( declare -a _=("" "$#") && declare -p _ && echo 'set -- "${_[#]:1}"') script -f -c 'echo "$#"' /tmp/logfile
}
or this function-less wrapper as a composable string for Makefiles:
in_pty=bash -c 'SHELL=/bin/bash BASH_ENV=<( declare -a _=("" "$$#") && declare -p _ && echo '"'"'set -- "$${_[#]:1}"'"'"') script -qfc '"'"'"$$#"'"'"' /tmp/logfile' --
...
$(in_pty) test --verbose $# $^
I was editing a different post and made a mistake. Augh. Anyway, perhaps this might help?
https://stackoverflow.com/a/11944320/1594168
Note that because the shell's array format is undocumented on bash or any other shell's side,
it is very difficult to return a shell array in platform independent way.
You would have to check the version, and also craft a simple script that concatinates all
shell arrays into a file that other processes can resolve into.
However, if you know the name of the array you want to take back home then there is a way, while a bit dirty.
Lets say I have
MyAry[42]="whatever-stuff";
MyAry[55]="foo";
MyAry[99]="bar";
So I want to take it home
name_of_child=MyAry
take_me_home="`declare -p ${name_of_child}`";
export take_me_home="${take_me_home/#declare -a ${name_of_child}=/}"
We can see it being exported, by checking from a sub-process
echo ""|awk '{print "from awk =["ENVIRON["take_me_home"]"]"; }'
Result :
from awk =['([42]="whatever-stuff" [55]="foo" [99]="bar")']
If we absolutely must, use the env var to dump it.
env > some_tmp_file
Then
Before running the another script,
# This is the magic that does it all
source some_tmp_file
As lesmana reported, you cannot export arrays. So you have to serialize them before passing through the environment. This serialization useful other places too where only a string fits (su -c 'string', ssh host 'string'). The shortest code way to do this is to abuse 'getopt'
# preserve_array(arguments). return in _RET a string that can be expanded
# later to recreate positional arguments. They can be restored with:
# eval set -- "$_RET"
preserve_array() {
_RET=$(getopt --shell sh --options "" -- -- "$#") && _RET=${_RET# --}
}
# restore_array(name, payload)
restore_array() {
local name="$1" payload="$2"
eval set -- "$payload"
eval "unset $name && $name=("\$#")"
}
Use it like this:
foo=("1: &&& - *" "2: two" "3: %# abc" )
preserve_array "${foo[#]}"
foo_stuffed=${_RET}
restore_array newfoo "$foo_stuffed"
for elem in "${newfoo[#]}"; do echo "$elem"; done
## output:
# 1: &&& - *
# 2: two
# 3: %# abc
This does not address unset/sparse arrays.
You might be able to reduce the 2 'eval' calls in restore_array.
Although this question/answers are pretty old, this post seems to be the top hit when searching for "bash serialize array"
And, although the original question wasn't quite related to serializing/deserializing arrays, it does seem that the answers have devolved in that direction.
So with that ... I offer my solution:
Pros
All Core Bash Concepts
No Evals
No Sub-Commands
Cons
Functions take variable names as arguments (vs actual values)
Serializing requires having at least one character that is not present in the array
serialize_array.bash
# shellcheck shell=bash
##
# serialize_array
# Serializes a bash array to a string, with a configurable seperator.
#
# $1 = source varname ( contains array to be serialized )
# $2 = target varname ( will contian the serialized string )
# $3 = seperator ( optional, defaults to $'\x01' )
#
# example:
#
# my_arry=( one "two three" four )
# serialize_array my_array my_string '|'
# declare -p my_string
#
# result:
#
# declare -- my_string="one|two three|four"
#
function serialize_array() {
declare -n _array="${1}" _str="${2}" # _array, _str => local reference vars
local IFS="${3:-$'\x01'}"
# shellcheck disable=SC2034 # Reference vars assumed used by caller
_str="${_array[*]}" # * => join on IFS
}
##
# deserialize_array
# Deserializes a string into a bash array, with a configurable seperator.
#
# $1 = source varname ( contains string to be deserialized )
# $2 = target varname ( will contain the deserialized array )
# $3 = seperator ( optional, defaults to $'\x01' )
#
# example:
#
# my_string="one|two three|four"
# deserialize_array my_string my_array '|'
# declare -p my_array
#
# result:
#
# declare -a my_array=([0]="one" [1]="two three" [2]="four")
#
function deserialize_array() {
IFS="${3:-$'\x01'}" read -r -a "${2}" <<<"${!1}" # -a => split on IFS
}
NOTE: This is hosted as a gist here:
https://gist.github.com/TekWizely/c0259f25e18f2368c4a577495cd566cd
[edits]
Logic simplified after running through shellcheck + shfmt.
Added URL for hosted GIST
you (hi!) can use this, dont need writing a file, for ubuntu 12.04, bash 4.2.24
Also, your multiple lines array can be exported.
cat >>exportArray.sh
function FUNCarrayRestore() {
local l_arrayName=$1
local l_exportedArrayName=${l_arrayName}_exportedArray
# if set, recover its value to array
if eval '[[ -n ${'$l_exportedArrayName'+dummy} ]]'; then
eval $l_arrayName'='`eval 'echo $'$l_exportedArrayName` #do not put export here!
fi
}
export -f FUNCarrayRestore
function FUNCarrayFakeExport() {
local l_arrayName=$1
local l_exportedArrayName=${l_arrayName}_exportedArray
# prepare to be shown with export -p
eval 'export '$l_arrayName
# collect exportable array in string mode
local l_export=`export -p \
|grep "^declare -ax $l_arrayName=" \
|sed 's"^declare -ax '$l_arrayName'"export '$l_exportedArrayName'"'`
# creates exportable non array variable (at child shell)
eval "$l_export"
}
export -f FUNCarrayFakeExport
test this example on terminal bash (works with bash 4.2.24):
source exportArray.sh
list=(a b c)
FUNCarrayFakeExport list
bash
echo ${list[#]} #empty :(
FUNCarrayRestore list
echo ${list[#]} #profit! :D
I may improve it here
PS.: if someone clears/improve/makeItRunFaster I would like to know/see, thx! :D
For arrays with values without spaces, I've been using a simple set of functions to iterate through each array element and concatenate the array:
_arrayToStr(){
array=($#)
arrayString=""
for (( i=0; i<${#array[#]}; i++ )); do
if [[ $i == 0 ]]; then
arrayString="\"${array[i]}\""
else
arrayString="${arrayString} \"${array[i]}\""
fi
done
export arrayString="(${arrayString})"
}
_strToArray(){
str=$1
array=${str//\"/}
array=(${array//[()]/""})
export array=${array[#]}
}
The first function with turn the array into a string by adding the opening and closing parentheses and escaping all of the double quotation marks. The second function will strip the quotation marks and the parentheses and place them into a dummy array.
In order export the array, you would pass in all the elements of the original array:
array=(foo bar)
_arrayToStr ${array[#]}
At this point, the array has been exported into the value $arrayString. To import the array in the destination file, rename the array and do the opposite conversion:
_strToArray "$arrayName"
newArray=(${array[#]})
Much thanks to #stéphane-chazelas who pointed out all the problems with my previous attempts, this now seems to work to serialise an array to stdout or into a variable.
This technique does not shell-parse the input (unlike declare -a/declare -p) and so is safe against malicious insertion of metacharacters in the serialised text.
Note: newlines are not escaped, because read deletes the \<newlines> character pair, so -d ... must instead be passed to read, and then unescaped newlines are preserved.
All this is managed in the unserialise function.
Two magic characters are used, the field separator and the record separator (so that multiple arrays can be serialized to the same stream).
These characters can be defined as FS and RS but neither can be defined as newline character because an escaped newline is deleted by read.
The escape character must be \ the backslash, as that is what is used by read to avoid the character being recognized as an IFS character.
serialise will serialise "$#" to stdout, serialise_to will serialise to the varable named in $1
serialise() {
set -- "${#//\\/\\\\}" # \
set -- "${#//${FS:-;}/\\${FS:-;}}" # ; - our field separator
set -- "${#//${RS:-:}/\\${RS:-:}}" # ; - our record separator
local IFS="${FS:-;}"
printf ${SERIALIZE_TARGET:+-v"$SERIALIZE_TARGET"} "%s" "$*${RS:-:}"
}
serialise_to() {
SERIALIZE_TARGET="$1" serialise "${#:2}"
}
unserialise() {
local IFS="${FS:-;}"
if test -n "$2"
then read -d "${RS:-:}" -a "$1" <<<"${*:2}"
else read -d "${RS:-:}" -a "$1"
fi
}
and unserialise with:
unserialise data # read from stdin
or
unserialise data "$serialised_data" # from args
e.g.
$ serialise "Now is the time" "For all good men" "To drink \$drink" "At the \`party\`" $'Party\tParty\tParty'
Now is the time;For all good men;To drink $drink;At the `party`;Party Party Party:
(without a trailing newline)
read it back:
$ serialise_to s "Now is the time" "For all good men" "To drink \$drink" "At the \`party\`" $'Party\tParty\tParty'
$ unserialise array "$s"
$ echo "${array[#]/#/$'\n'}"
Now is the time
For all good men
To drink $drink
At the `party`
Party Party Party
or
unserialise array # read from stdin
Bash's read respects the escape character \ (unless you pass the -r flag) to remove special meaning of characters such as for input field separation or line delimiting.
If you want to serialise an array instead of a mere argument list then just pass your array as the argument list:
serialise_array "${my_array[#]}"
You can use unserialise in a loop like you would read because it is just a wrapped read - but remember that the stream is not newline separated:
while unserialise array
do ...
done
I've wrote my own functions for this and improved the method with the IFS:
Features:
Doesn't call to $(...) and so doesn't spawn another bash shell process
Serializes ? and | characters into ?00 and ?01 sequences and back, so can be used over array with these characters
Handles the line return characters between serialization/deserialization as other characters
Tested in cygwin bash 3.2.48 and Linux bash 4.3.48
function tkl_declare_global()
{
eval "$1=\"\$2\"" # right argument does NOT evaluate
}
function tkl_declare_global_array()
{
local IFS=$' \t\r\n' # just in case, workaround for the bug in the "[#]:i" expression under the bash version lower than 4.1
eval "$1=(\"\${#:2}\")"
}
function tkl_serialize_array()
{
local __array_var="$1"
local __out_var="$2"
[[ -z "$__array_var" ]] && return 1
[[ -z "$__out_var" ]] && return 2
local __array_var_size
eval declare "__array_var_size=\${#$__array_var[#]}"
(( ! __array_var_size )) && { tkl_declare_global $__out_var ''; return 0; }
local __escaped_array_str=''
local __index
local __value
for (( __index=0; __index < __array_var_size; __index++ )); do
eval declare "__value=\"\${$__array_var[__index]}\""
__value="${__value//\?/?00}"
__value="${__value//|/?01}"
__escaped_array_str="$__escaped_array_str${__escaped_array_str:+|}$__value"
done
tkl_declare_global $__out_var "$__escaped_array_str"
return 0
}
function tkl_deserialize_array()
{
local __serialized_array="$1"
local __out_var="$2"
[[ -z "$__out_var" ]] && return 1
(( ! ${#__serialized_array} )) && { tkl_declare_global $__out_var ''; return 0; }
local IFS='|'
local __deserialized_array=($__serialized_array)
tkl_declare_global_array $__out_var
local __index=0
local __value
for __value in "${__deserialized_array[#]}"; do
__value="${__value//\?01/|}"
__value="${__value//\?00/?}"
tkl_declare_global $__out_var[__index] "$__value"
(( __index++ ))
done
return 0
}
Example:
a=($'1 \n 2' "3\"4'" 5 '|' '?')
tkl_serialize_array a b
tkl_deserialize_array "$b" c
I think you can try it this way (by sourcing your script after export):
export myArray=(Hello World)
. yourScript.sh