On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 11:24:57AM -0400, Shawn Wilson wrote: > On +2015/05/26 11:04:38, Greg Wooledge wrote: > > On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 10:31:34AM -0400, Shawn Wilson wrote: > > > swilson@swlap1:~/temp$ bash --version > > > GNU bash, version 4.3.11(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) > > > swilson@swlap1:~/temp$ cat t.txt > > > $ome text !n a file| > > > swilson@swlap1:~/temp$ unset t > > > swilson@swlap1:~/temp$ t=$(< ./t.txt) > > > swilson@swlap1:~/temp$ echo "$t" > > > bash: $ome text !n a file|: invalid variable name for name reference > > > swilson@swlap1:~/temp$ var=foo; declare -n t; t=var; unset t; echo "$t" > > > bash: $ome text !n a file|: invalid variable name for name reference > > > > As surprising as that is, have a look at "help unset": > > > > So current behavior should stand? I would think that unset (with no > options) should DWIM. This behavior also seemed to surprise most on > #bash IRC. This is not a bug for lack of documentation or not > understanding the results after looking at the doc, but a "wow, this > is surprising - maybe this could behave in a manner so it's not so > surprising".
The surprising part is that it keeps the -n flag, but partially loses the nameref ability: $ var=foo; declare -n ref $ ref=var $ printf '%s - ' "$ref"; declare -p ref foo - declare -n ref="var" $ unset ref $ ref=var $ printf '%s - ' "$ref"; declare -p ref var - declare -n ref="var" $ ref=baz baz - declare -n ref="var" -- Geir Hauge
