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I read a similar example from bash programming book:

$ cat indirection 
#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -x
num=1
eval "${!num#*:}"
$

When I execute the script with bash indirection "test:echo blah", then how is the last line of the script processed? I guess first the indirection happens so that eval "${!num#*:}" becomes eval "${1#*:}"? Then substring removal takes place and eval "${1#*:}" becomes eval echo blah? If yes, then why is eval needed, i.e ${!num#*:} instead of eval "${!num#*:}" would provide the same results?

Martin
  • 7,516

1 Answers1

3

The output of the parameter expansion is:

$ echo "${1#*:}"
echo blah

Well, yes, in this specific case:

$ set -- "test:echo blah"
$ eval "${1#*:}"
blah

$ ${1#*:}
blah

Execute the same command. But that is not always true:

$ "${1#*:}"
bash: echo blah: command not found

In fact, an string that contains shell meta characters will not work correctly even if unquoted.

$ set -- "test:echo blah > file"
${1#*:}
blah > file

The redirection did not happen, but (beware that a file will be created):

$ eval "${1#*:}"

Will create a file called file in the PWD.