Variable definition are separate from assignment in bash

Asked Apr 04 '18 at 10:48

Active Apr 04 '18 at 10:48

Viewed 24 times

The project I'm working on right now contains the same idiom again and again:

local cur_ts= ; cur_ts=$( date +%s )

They do it only for variables which values are calculated via $().

local name=$1
local value=$2
local pair="$name => $value"
local server= ; server=$( hostname )

Looks like it makes some sense, at least according to the previous author. What is it?

asked Apr 04 '18 at 10:48

Vadim Pushtaev

Are you asking what is the meaning of $1.. $name.. $(hostname)? – Abhijit Pritam Dutta Apr 04 '18 at 10:54
Looks like someone copied and pasted it over and over, there should be no issue doing `local server=$(hostname)`, except `bash` has a variable `HOSTNAME` anyway! – cdarke Apr 04 '18 at 10:55
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_programming – cdarke Apr 04 '18 at 10:59
Well, looks like there _is_ an issue. @Inian, thanks for pointing out the other question. – Vadim Pushtaev Apr 04 '18 at 11:02

0 Answers0