bash shell puzzle....

[Andrew P. Lentvorski, Jr.]

On Mar 3, 2005, at 7:08 AM, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:

> in bash:
>
> var=$1
> VAR=${!var-ThisVarNotSet}
> if [ .$VAR = .ThisVarNotSet ];
>   var=PATH
>   VAR=${!var}
> fi

Ummm, in what way does:

FOO=${MAYBESET:-${ALWAYSDEFAULT}}

not work in standard sh?

I mean, that one is right from "csh programming considered harmful".

Sun Microsystems Inc.   SunOS 5.9       Generic May 2002
$ sh
$ CHOICE2="choice2"; export CHOICE2
$ FOO=${CHOICE1:-${CHOICE2}}; export FOO
$ env | grep FOO
FOO=choice2
$ CHOICE1="choice1"; export CHOICE1
$ FOO=${CHOICE1:-${CHOICE2}}; export FOO
$ env | grep FOO
FOO=choice1

-a