Function name valid in bash but not in sh

Question

While playing around with bash and sh, I found out that the following is valid in bash:

system.out.println () { printf "$1"; }

but not in sh:

sh: `system.out.println': not a valid identifier

Why would this difference be there? Does the function defined above violate some convention (POSIX etc.) that causes this error?

While I'm not sure this will solve your problem, you could try using aliases. Like this: ldot_function () { ls -A $* | egrep '^\.' } alias l.=ldot_function — Cyberwiz, Feb 05 '15 at 14:16

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

11

It's just the dots, you can't use dots in shell function names. Or any variable name, for that matter.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

answered Dec 25 '13 at 10:35

Noctua

7

In the POSIX shell, a function [name](http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html#tag_03_231) must consist solely of underscores and alphanumeric characters. – chepner Dec 25 '13 at 21:38

1 Answers1