On 9/1/15 12:50 AM, Clint Hepner wrote: > Bash Version: 4.3 > Patch Level: 42 > Release Status: release > > Description: > > Parameter names are recursively evaluated in an arithmetic expression, but > this > is not done consistently.
Parameter names are expanded and treated as expressions where they need to be evaluated as a number, and as identifiers when they are the subject of assignment. This is the usual way to handle context-dependent evaluation. > Repeat-By: > > foo=bar > bar=5 > echo $(( foo )) # produces 5 > echo $(( foo++ )) # produces 5 > echo $foo # produces 6, not bar > echo $bar # produces 5, not 6 Consider this equivalent expression: oldfoo=foo,foo=foo+1,oldfoo Would you claim that the foo on the lhs of the assignment statement should be expanded to `bar'? How would assignments ever be performed if it were? -- ``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU c...@case.edu http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/