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arraysbashvariables
natevw
natevw

Reputation: 17902

How to assign the @ array to another variable in bash?

Amongst the answers to How to copy an array in Bash?, the solution for copying an array from one variable to another is arrayClone=("${oldArray[@]}").

However, what if the array I need to copy is the list of arguments, @?

A simple test script like:

#! /bin/bash

argsCopy=("${@[@]}")

Fails with an error:

line 3: ${@[@]}: bad substitution

Upvotes: 6

Views: 4486

Answers (1)

natevw
natevw

Reputation: 17902

By way of experimentation, it appears that argsCopy=("$@") is sufficient.

When I run the following via ./test.sh 1 2 3\ 4,

#! /bin/bash

set -x
argsCopy=("$@")
echo "${argsCopy[@]}" > /dev/null

it outputs:

+ argsCopy=("$@")
+ echo 1 2 '3 4'

However, like many things in sh/bash, I can't explain what rules of the language cause this to work, or under what circumstances it might end up failing.

Upvotes: 7

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