This is a follow-up to my question here: How to write bash function to print and run command when the command has arguments with spaces or things to be expanded
Suppose I have this function to print and run a command stored in an array:
# Print and run the cmd stored in the passed-in array
print_and_run() {
echo "Running cmd: $*"
# run the command by calling all elements of the command array at once
"$#"
}
This works fine:
cmd_array=(ls -a /)
print_and_run "${cmd_array[#]}"
But this does NOT work:
cmd_array=(ls -a / | grep "home")
print_and_run "${cmd_array[#]}"
Error: syntax error near unexpected token `|':
eRCaGuy_hello_world/bash$ ./print_and_run.sh
./print_and_run.sh: line 55: syntax error near unexpected token `|'
./print_and_run.sh: line 55: `cmd_array=(ls -a / | grep "home")'
How can I get this concept to work with the pipe operator (|) in the command?
If you want to treat an array element containing only | as an instruction to generate a pipeline, you can do that. I don't recommend it -- it means you have security risk if you don't verify that variables into your string can't consist only of a single pipe character -- but it's possible.
Below, we create a random single-use "$pipe" sigil to make that attack harder. If you're unwilling to do that, change [[ $arg = "$pipe" ]] to [[ $arg = "|" ]].
# generate something random to make an attacker's job harder
pipe=$(uuidgen)
# use that randomly-generated sigil in place of | in our array
cmd_array=(
ls -a /
"$pipe" grep "home"
)
exec_array_pipe() {
local arg cmd_q
local -a cmd=( )
while (( $# )); do
arg=$1; shift
if [[ $arg = "$pipe" ]]; then
# log an eval-safe copy of what we're about to run
printf -v cmd_q '%q ' "${cmd[#]}"
echo "Starting pipeline component: $cmd_q" >&2
# Recurse into a new copy of ourselves as a child process
"${cmd[#]}" | exec_array_pipe "$#"
return
fi
cmd+=( "$arg" )
done
printf -v cmd_q '%q ' "${cmd[#]}"
echo "Starting pipeline component: $cmd_q" >&2
"${cmd[#]}"
}
exec_array_pipe "${cmd_array[#]}"
See this running in an online sandbox at https://ideone.com/IWOTfO
Do this instead. It works.
print_and_run() {
echo "Running cmd: $1"
eval "$1"
}
Example usage:
cmd='ls -a / | grep -C 9999 --color=always "home"'
print_and_run "$cmd"
Output:
Running cmd: ls -a / | grep -C 9999 --color=always "home"
(rest of output here, with the word "home" highlighted in red)
The general direction is that you don't. You do not store the whole command line to be printed later, and this is not the direction you should take.
The "bad" solution is to use eval.
The "good" solution is to store the literal '|' character inside the array (or some better representation of it) and parse the array, extract the pipe parts and execute them. This is presented by Charles in the other amazing answer. It is just rewriting the parser that already exists in the shell. It requires significant work, and expanding it will require significant work.
The end result is, is that you are reimplementing parts of shell inside shell. Basically writing a shell interpreter in shell. At this point, you can just consider taking Bash sources and implementing a new shopt -o print_the_command_before_executing option in the sources, which might just be simpler.
However, I believe the end goal is to give users a way to see what is being executed. I would propose to approach it like .gitlab-ci.yml does with script: statements. If you want to invent your own language with "debug" support, do just that instead of half-measures. Consider the following YAML file:
- ls -a / | grep "home"
- echo other commands
- for i in "stuff"; do
echo "$i";
done
- |
for i in "stuff"; do
echo "$i"
done
Then the following "runner":
import yaml
import shlex
import os
import sys
script = []
input = yaml.safe_load(open(sys.argv[1], "r"))
for line in input:
script += [
"echo + " + shlex.quote(line).replace("\n", "<newline>"), # some unicode like  would look nice
line,
]
os.execvp("bash", ["bash", "-c", "\n".join(script)])
Executing the runner results in:
+ ls -a / | grep "home"
home
+ echo other commands
other commands
+ for i in "stuff"; do echo "$i"; done
stuff
+ for i in "stuff"; do<newline> echo "$i"<newline>done<newline>
stuff
This offers greater flexibility and is rather simple, supports any shell construct with ease. You can try gitlab-ci/cd on their repository and read the docs.
The YAML format is only an example of the input format. Using special comments like # --- cut --- between parts and extracting each part with the parser will allow running shellcheck over the script. Instead of generating a script with echo statements, you could run Bash interactively, print the part to be executed and then "feed" the part to be executed to interactive Bash. This will alow to preserve $?.
Either way - with a "good" solution, you end up with a custom parser.
Instead of passing an array, you can pass the whole function and use the output of declare -f with some custom parsing:
print_and_run() {
echo "+ $(
declare -f "$1" |
# Remove `f() {` and `}`. Remove indentation.
sed '1d;2d;$d;s/^ *//' |
# Replace newlines with <newline>.
sed -z 's/\n*$//;s/\n/<newline>/'
)"
"$#"
}
cmd() { ls -a / | grep "home"; }
print_and_run cmd
Results in:
+ ls --color -F -a / | grep "home"
home/
It will allow for supporting any shell construct and still allow you to check it with shellcheck and doesn't require that much work.
I am trying to loop through an array of directories using a bash script so I can list directories with their timestamp, ownership etc using ls -arlt. I am reviewing bash so would like some feedback.
It works with declare -a for those indirect references but for each directory it outputs and extra directory from the /home/user.
I tried to use declare -n and declare -r for each directory and doesn't work.
#!/bin/bash
# Bash variables
acpi=/etc/acpi
apm=/etc/apm
xml=/etc/xml
array=( acpi apm xml )
# Function to display timestamp, ownership ...
displayInfo()
{
for i in "${array[#]}"; do
declare -n curArray=$i
if [[ -d ${curArray} ]]; then
declare -a _acpi=${curArray[0]} _apm=${curArray[1]} _xml=${curArray[2]}
echo "Displaying folder apci: "
cd $_acpi
ls -alrt
read -p "Press enter to continue"
echo "Displaying folder apm: "
cd $_apm
ls -alrt
read -p "Press enter to continue"
echo "Displaying folder xml: "
cd $_xml
ls -alrt
read -p "Press enter to continue"
else
echo "Displayed Failed" >&2
exit 1
fi
done
}
displayInfo
exit 0
It outputs an extra directory listing the /home/user and don't want that output.
There are a lot of complex and powerful shell features being used here, but in ways that don't fit together or make sense. I'll go over the mistakes in a minute, first let me just give how I'd do it. One thing I will use that you might not be familiar with is indirect variable references with ${!var} -- this is like using a nameref variable, but IMO it's clearer what's going on.
acpi=/etc/acpi
apm=/etc/apm
xml=/etc/xml
array=( acpi apm xml )
displayInfo()
{
for curDirectory in "${array[#]}"; do
if [[ -d ${!curDirectory} ]]; then
echo "Displaying folder $curDirectory:"
ls -alrt "${!curDirectory}"
read -p "Press enter to continue"
else
echo "Error: ${!curDirectory} does not exist or is not a directory" >&2
exit 1
fi
done
}
displayInfo
(One problem with this is that it does the "Press enter to continue" thing after each directory, rather than just between them. This can be fixed, but it's a little more work.)
Ok, now for what went wrong with the original. My main recommendation for you would be to try mentally stepping through your code to see what it's doing. It can help to put set -x before it, so the shell will print its interpretation of what it's doing as it runs, and see how it compares to what you expected. Let's do a short walkthrough of the displayInfo function:
for i in "${array[#]}"; do
This will loop over the contents of array, so on the first pass through the loop i will be set to "acpi". Good so far.
declare -n curArray=$i
This creates a nameref variable pointing to the other variable acpi -- this is similar to what I did with ${! }, and basically reasonable so far. Well, with one exception: the name suggests it's an array, but acpi is a plain variable, not an array.
if [[ -d ${curArray} ]]; then
This checks whether the contents of the acpi variable, "/etc/acpi" is the path of an existing directory (which it is). Still doing good.
declare -a _acpi=${curArray[0]} _apm=${curArray[1]} _xml=${curArray[2]}
Here's where things go completely off the rails. curArray points to the variable acpi, so ${curArray[0]} etc are equivalent to ${acpi[0]} etc. But acpi isn't an array, it's a plain variable, so ${acpi[0]} gets its value, and ${acpi[1]} and ${acpi[2]} get nothing. Furthermore, you're using declare -a (declare arrays), but you're just assigning single values to _acpi, _apm, and _xml. They're declared as arrays, but you're just using them as plain variables (basically the reverse of how you're using curArray -> acpi).
There's a deeper confusion here as well. The for loop above is iterating over "acpi", "apm", and "xml", and we're currently working on "acpi". During this pass through the loop, you should only be working on acpi, not also trying to work on apm and xml. That's the point of having a for loop there.
Ok, that's the main problem here, but let me just point out a couple of other things I'd consider bad practice:
cd $_apm
ls -alrt
Using a variable reference without double-quotes around it like this invites parsing confusion; you should almost always put double-quotes, like cd "$_apm". Also, using cd in a script is dangerous because if it fails the rest of the script will execute in the wrong place. In this case, _apm is empty, so without double-quotes it's equivalent to just cd, which moves to your home directory. This is why you're getting that result. If you used cd "$_apm" it would get an error instead... but since you don't check for that it'll go ahead and still list an irrelevant location.
It's almost always better to avoid cd and its complications entirely, and just use explicit paths, like ls -alrt "$_apm".
echo "Displayed Failed" >&2
exit 1
Do you actually want to exit the entire script if one of the directories doesn't exist? It'd make more sense to me to just return 1 (which exits just the function, not the entire script), or better yet continue (which just goes on to the next iteration of the loop -- i.e. the next directory on the list). I left the exit in my version, but I'd recommend changing it.
One more similar thing:
acpi=/etc/acpi
apm=/etc/apm
xml=/etc/xml
array=( acpi apm xml )
Is there any actual reason to use this array -> variable name -> actual directory path system (and resulting indirect expansion or nameref complications), rather than just having an array of directory paths, like this?
array=( /etc/acpi /etc/apm /etc/xml )
I left the indirection in my version above, but really if there's no reason for it I'd remove the complication.
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.
How can I run a command line from a bash array containing a pipeline?
For example, I want run ls | grep x by means of:
$ declare -a pipeline
$ pipeline=(ls)
$ pipeline+=("|")
$ pipeline+=(grep x)
$ "${pipeline[#]}"
But I get this:
ls: cannot access |: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access grep: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access x: No such file or directory
Short form: You can't (without writing some code), and it's a feature, not a bug.
If you're doing things in a safe way, you're protecting your data from being parsed as code (syntax). What you explicitly want here, however, is to treat data as code, but only in a controlled way.
What you can do is iterate over elements, use printf '%q ' "$element" to get a safely quoted string if they aren't a pipeline, and leave them unsubstituted if they are.
After doing that, and ONLY after doing that, can you safely eval the output string.
eval_args() {
local outstr=''
while (( $# )); do
if [[ $1 = '|' ]]; then
outstr+="| "
else
printf -v outstr '%s%q ' "$outstr" "$1"
fi
shift
done
eval "$outstr"
}
eval_args "${pipeline[#]}"
By the way -- it's much safer NOT TO DO THIS. Think about the case where you're processing a list of files, and one of them is named |; this strategy could be used by an attacker to inject code. Using separate lists for the before and after arrays, or making only one side of the pipeline an array and hardcoding the other, is far better practice.
Close - just add eval:
$ eval ${pipeline[#]}
This works for me:
bash -c "${pipeline[*]}"
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