CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
leontp587
leontp587

Reputation: 791

What does export variable without an equals sign do?

There's a bash script on my linux machine with these two lines:

[ -r /etc/java/java.conf ] && . /etc/java/java.conf
export JAVA_HOME

What does the export JAVA_HOME do? Usually I thought export VARIABLE_NAME=something sets the variable to something.

What does running export JAVA_HOME without setting it to something do?

I tried running it on the commandline, but nothing happens.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 2330

Answers (1)

l'L'l
l'L'l

Reputation: 47229

The two lines of code (better to use double brackets):

[[ -r /etc/java/java.conf ]] && . /etc/java/java.conf
export JAVA_HOME

...equates to this:

-r checks if /etc/java/java.conf exists and read permission is granted.

&& if the condition above is true then source the file.

export JAVA_HOME takes the previously-assigned value of $JAVA_HOME from the sourced file making it available to subprocesses rather than only within the shell.

Upvotes: 6

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