Bash local variables not overwritten

Question

I am trying to create a simple bash function that uses 2 command line parameters. -v for verbosity and -d for a date.

I want to use verbosity false as default and todays date as default for -d.

Now if I provide actual other values, my defaults dont get overwritten. Here is an example output:

$ cruns -v -d 2019-09-10
2019-09-12
false
if check
test false

The date output should be sept. 10th instead of 12th.

And here is my code:

EDIT: I fixed the variable assignment $, but the output still does not use my provided parameters.

cruns(){
        local VERBOSE=false
        local STARTDATE="$(date +"%Y-%m-%d")"

        while getopts "vd:" option; do

        case $option
        in
        v) VERBOSE=true
           ;;

        d) STARTDATE=$OPTARG
           ;;
        esac
    done


        echo $STARTDATE;
        echo $VERBOSE;

        echo "if check"

        if $VERBOSE; then
        echo "test true";#              cjobs $STARTDATE | awk -F"_AS-|_Und|_all" '{a[$1]++} END{for(x in a){print x}}'
        else
    echo "test false";#             cjobs $STARTDATE | awk -F"__|_AS-|_Und|_all" '{a[$2]++} END{for(x in a){print x}}'
        fi
}

EDIT: I fixed the variable assignment $, but the output still does not use my provided parameters. I store the function in my bashrc, source bashrc and call the function from terminal if this is of importance.

What do I need to change to make the variables get filled with the provided commandline parameters in my getopts case?

bash variable assignments never use '$' on the left hand side of the equals — Calvin Taylor, Sep 12 '19 at 12:46
Possible duplicate of [Using getopts inside a Bash function](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16654607/using-getopts-inside-a-bash-function). The critical thing here is that you must make `OPTIND` local, or `getopts` gets very confused. Also, I recommend using lower- or mixed-case variables for your own things (e.g. `verbose` instead of `VERBOSE`), to avoid confusion with the manu all-caps variables with special meanings. — Gordon Davisson, Sep 12 '19 at 15:21

suspectus · Answer 1 · 2019-09-12T14:00:27.240

2

Assign to the variable name, not it's value. So it's VERBOSE=true and STARTDATE=$OPTARG.

case $option
in
v) VERBOSE=true
   ;;

d) STARTDATE=$OPTARG
   ;;
esac

Also, as you appear to be using the crun command from shell, you need to source the file containing the cruns definition into your current shell.

source cruns.sh

edited Sep 12 '19 at 14:00

answered Sep 12 '19 at 12:32

suspectus

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This did not fix it, I still get the same output as before. Is it because of my use of local variables maybe? – voiDnyx Sep 12 '19 at 13:28
Are you using those variables outside the function? If so, yes, remove the local declarations. – suspectus Sep 12 '19 at 13:33
No I do not use them for anything else. I only declare them in the function, want to re-assign their value if a parameter is given and use them in the same function 2 lines later. – voiDnyx Sep 12 '19 at 13:39
See updated post, `source ` - does that help? – suspectus Sep 12 '19 at 13:51
I did / do source the file (my .bashrc) after the changes. No change in output though. – voiDnyx Sep 12 '19 at 15:07

Bash local variables not overwritten

1 Answers1