URL: <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?68885>
Summary: readonly variable can terminate command chain
Group: The GNU Bourne-Again SHell
Submitter: None
Submitted: Fri 06 Nov 2026 12:45:17 AM UTC
Category: None
Severity: 3 - Normal
Priority: 5 - Normal
Item Group: None
Status: None
Privacy: Public
Assigned to: None
Open/Closed: Open
Discussion Lock: Unlocked
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Follow-up Comments:
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Date: Fri 06 Nov 2026 12:45:17 AM UTC By: Anonymous
Erroneously trying to set a readonly variable can cause variant behaviour in
command line processing.
# all commands execute with or without not found reporting
a=0 someerror; echo "yep"
a=; echo "yep"
# a readonly variable can break that
readonly b=42
# these evaluate the echo yep
b=43 someerror; echo "yep"
b=43 echo "ok"; echo "yep"
# this does not. it terminates processing at the semi-colon
b=43; echo "nope" # does not echo
prompt$ b=43; echo "yep"
bash: b: readonly variable
prompt$ b=43 err; echo "yep"
bash: b: readonly variable
bash: err: command not found
yep
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