CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashshopt
jaymess
jaymess

Reputation: 15

Unable to save shopt globstar output to variable

I'm trying to save the current status of shopt globstar to a variable so I can change it if needed then set it back as to not leave the user's environment altered.

I have tried storing the command output multiple ways such as var=$(command) and var=`command` but when I test with echo $var it always reads the state as "off" even though it's not.

gstar=$( shopt globstar )
echo "$gstar"

I'm hoping to use echo to test the current state against manually running shopt globstar but they do not match.

This basic variable store is working fine with whoami command.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 330

Answers (2)

user1934428
user1934428

Reputation: 22217

To save the shopt value:

if shopt -q globstar
then
  # the option is enabled
  saved_globstar=-s
else
  # the option is disabled
  saved_globstar=-u
fi

Now you can change your globstar value. If you later want to restore it to the previous state, do a

shopt $saved_globstar globstar

Upvotes: 2

John Kugelman
John Kugelman

Reputation: 361635

Are you running your script directly (./script.sh) or sourcing it (. script.sh or source script.sh)?

  1. If you're running it directly it'll have its own environment and you don't have to worry about preserving the user's settings. Scripts get a copy of the user's environment and changes only affect the copy, not the original. Just set the option however you like at the top of your script.

    #!/bin/bash

shopt -s globstar
foo **/bar

  2. If it's being sourced it's a lot easier to just wrap the relevant parts of the script in a subshell so they run in an isolated environment.

    (
    shopt -s globstar
    foo **/bar
)
baz

I suspect it's case 1 since you say it always starts out off.

Upvotes: 4

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