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Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Bash - Command Substitution, Subshell and Codeblock

Quick and simple differences between using $(..)(..) and {..;}.
  • $(command) or `command` - Command substitution (the output of a command replaces the command name) and is executed in a subshell. Please give preference to $(..) for better readability
  • ( command ) - Command list is executed in a subshell
  • { command ;} - Command list is executed in the current shell
Executing code
$ ( echo 123 )
123

$ $(echo 123) # this executes the output of the command
123: command not found

$ { echo 123 ;}
123
Fiding subshell level with built-in BASH_SUBSHELL variable
$ ( echo $BASH_SUBSHELL )
1
$ ( ( echo $BASH_SUBSHELL ) )
2

$ $($BASH_SUBSHELL)
1: command not found

$ { echo $BASH_SUBSHELL ;}
0
Passing variables to subshell
$ var1=1

$ ( echo $var1 )
1

$ $(echo $var1)
1: command not found

$ { echo $var1 ;}
1
Changing and getting variables values in subshell
$ var=1

$ ( var=2 ) ; echo $var
1

$ $(var=2) ; echo $var
1

# Because we did not create a subshell, 
# variable is available to original shell
$ { var=2 ;} ; echo $var 
2

Other usages

Example 1:
Multiple commands and multiple lines. This can be used with (..) and {..}.
$ { echo 1 ; echo 2 ; echo 3; }
1
2
3

$ { 
> echo 1
> echo 2
> echo 3;
> }
1
2
3
Example 2:
Changing the environment for subshell with separate environment. Here, set -u is only set in the subshell, so only the first echo will error out.
unset var1 var2
(
  set -u
  echo $var2
) 
echo $var1

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