I've already discussed the hows and whys of the way the below methods work on several occasions before so I won't do it again. Personally, my own favorites on the topic are here and here.
If you're not interested in reading that but still curious just understand that the here-docs attached to the function's input are evaluated for shell expansion before the function runs, and that they are generated anew in the state they were when the function was defined every time the function is called.
DECLARE
You just need a function that declares other functions.
_fn_init() { . /dev/fd/4 ; } 4<<INIT
${1}() { $(shift ; printf %s\\n "$@")
} 4<<-REQ 5<<-\\RESET
: \${_if_unset?shell will ERR and print this to stderr}
: \${common_param="REQ/RESET added to all funcs"}
REQ
_fn_init $(printf "'%s' " "$@")
RESET
INIT
RUN IT
Here I call upon _fn_init to declare me a function called fn.
set -vx
_fn_init fn \
'echo "this would be command 1"' \
'echo "$common_param"'
#OUTPUT#
+ _fn_init fn 'echo "this would be command 1"' 'echo "$common_param"'
shift ; printf %s\\n "$@"
++ shift
++ printf '%s\n' 'echo "this would be command 1"' 'echo "$common_param"'
printf "'%s' " "$@"
++ printf ''\''%s'\'' ' fn 'echo "this would be command 1"' 'echo "$common_param"'
#ALL OF THE ABOVE OCCURS BEFORE _fn_init RUNS#
#FIRST AND ONLY COMMAND ACTUALLY IN FUNCTION BODY BELOW#
+ . /dev/fd/4
#fn AFTER _fn_init .dot SOURCES IT#
fn() { echo "this would be command 1"
echo "$common_param"
} 4<<-REQ 5<<-\RESET
: ${_if_unset?shell will ERR and print this to stderr}
: ${common_param="REQ/RESET added to all funcs"}
REQ
_fn_init 'fn' \
'echo "this would be command 1"' \
'echo "$common_param"'
RESET
REQUIRED
If I want to call this function it will die unless the environment variable _if_unset is set.
fn
#OUTPUT#
+ fn
/dev/fd/4: line 1: _if_unset: shell will ERR and print this to stderr
Please note the order of the shell traces - not only does the fn fail when called when _if_unset is unset, but it never runs in the first place. This is the most important factor to understand when working with here-document expansions - they must always occur first because they are <<input after all.
The error comes from /dev/fd/4 because the parent shell is evaluating that input before handing it off to the function. It's the simplest, most efficient way to test for requisite environment.
Anyway, the failure is easily remedied.
_if_unset=set fn
#OUTPUT#
+ _if_unset=set
+ fn
+ echo 'this would be command 1'
this would be command 1
+ echo 'REQ/RESET added to all funcs'
REQ/RESET added to all funcs
FLEXIBLE
The variable common_param is evaluated to a default value on input for every function declared by _fn_init. But that value is also changeable to any other which will also be honored by every function similarly declared. I'll leave off the shell traces now - we're not going into any uncharted territory here or anything.
set +vx
_fn_init 'fn' \
'echo "Hi! I am the first function."' \
'echo "$common_param"'
_fn_init 'fn2' \
'echo "This is another function."' \
'echo "$common_param"'
_if_unset=set ;
Above I declare two functions and set _if_unset. Now, before calling either function, I'll unset common_param so you can see they will set it themselves when I call them.
unset common_param ; echo
fn ; echo
fn2 ; echo
#OUTPUT#
Hi! I am the first function.
REQ/RESET added to all funcs
This is another function.
REQ/RESET added to all funcs
And now from the caller's scope:
echo $common_param
#OUTPUT#
REQ/RESET added to all funcs
But now I want it to be something else entirely:
common_param="Our common parameter is now something else entirely."
fn ; echo
fn2 ; echo
#OUTPUT#
Hi! I am the first function.
Our common parameter is now something else entirely.
This is another function.
Our common parameter is now something else entirely.
And if I unset _if_unset?
unset _if_unset ; echo
echo "fn:"
fn ; echo
echo "fn2:"
fn2 ; echo
#OUTPUT#
fn:
dash: 1: _if_unset: shell will ERR and print this to stderr
fn2:
dash: 1: _if_unset: shell will ERR and print this to stderr
RESET
If you need to reset the function's state at any time it is easily done. You need only do (from within the function):
. /dev/fd/5
I saved the arguments used to initially declare the function in the 5<<\RESET input file-descriptor. So .dot sourcing that in the shell at any time will repeat the process that set it up in the first place. It's all pretty easy, really, and pretty much fully portable if you're willing to overlook the fact that POSIX doesn't actually specify the file-descriptor device node paths (which are a necessity for the shell's .dot).
You could easily expand on this behavior and configure different states for your function.
MORE?
This barely scratches the surface, by the way. I often use these techniques to embed little helper functions declarable at any time into the input of a main function - for instance, for additional positional $@arrays as needed. In fact - as I believe, it must be something very close to this that the higher order shells do anyway. You can see they're very easily programmatically named.
I also like to declare a generator function which accepts a limited type of parameter and then defines a single-use or otherwise scope-limited burner-function along the lines of a lambda - or an in-line function - that simply unset -f's itself when through. You can pass a shell function around.
