我想从Bash函数返回一个字符串。

我将用java写这个例子来说明我想做什么:

public String getSomeString() {
  return "tadaa";
}

String variable = getSomeString();

下面的示例可以在bash中工作,但是是否有更好的方法来做到这一点?

function getSomeString {
   echo "tadaa"
}

VARIABLE=$(getSomeString)

当前回答

Bash自2014年2月4.3版(?)起,除了“eval”之外,还明确支持引用变量或名称引用(namerefs),具有相同的性能和间接效果,并且在你的脚本中可能更清晰,也更难“忘记'eval'而不得不修复此错误”:

declare [-aAfFgilnrtux] [-p] [name[=value] ...]
typeset [-aAfFgilnrtux] [-p] [name[=value] ...]
  Declare variables and/or give them attributes
  ...
  -n Give each name the nameref attribute, making it a name reference
     to another variable.  That other variable is defined by the value
     of name.  All references and assignments to name, except for⋅
     changing the -n attribute itself, are performed on the variable
     referenced by name's value.  The -n attribute cannot be applied to
     array variables.
...
When used in a function, declare and typeset make each name local,
as with the local command, unless the -g option is supplied...

还有:

PARAMETERS A variable can be assigned the nameref attribute using the -n option to the declare or local builtin commands (see the descriptions of declare and local below) to create a nameref, or a reference to another variable. This allows variables to be manipulated indirectly. Whenever the nameref variable is⋅ referenced or assigned to, the operation is actually performed on the variable specified by the nameref variable's value. A nameref is commonly used within shell functions to refer to a variable whose name is passed as an argument to⋅ the function. For instance, if a variable name is passed to a shell function as its first argument, running declare -n ref=$1 inside the function creates a nameref variable ref whose value is the variable name passed as the first argument. References and assignments to ref are treated as references and assignments to the variable whose name was passed as⋅ $1. If the control variable in a for loop has the nameref attribute, the list of words can be a list of shell variables, and a name reference will be⋅ established for each word in the list, in turn, when the loop is executed. Array variables cannot be given the -n attribute. However, nameref variables can reference array variables and subscripted array variables. Namerefs can be⋅ unset using the -n option to the unset builtin. Otherwise, if unset is executed with the name of a nameref variable as an argument, the variable referenced by⋅ the nameref variable will be unset.

例如(EDIT 2:(谢谢你Ron)在函数内部变量名的命名空间(前缀),以最小化外部变量冲突,这最终应该正确地回答了Karsten在评论中提出的问题):

# $1 : string; your variable to contain the return value
function return_a_string () {
    declare -n ret=$1
    local MYLIB_return_a_string_message="The date is "
    MYLIB_return_a_string_message+=$(date)
    ret=$MYLIB_return_a_string_message
}

测试这个例子:

$ return_a_string result; echo $result
The date is 20160817

请注意,bash“declare”内置在函数中使用时,默认情况下会使声明的变量为“local”,并且“-n”也可以与“local”一起使用。

我更喜欢区分“重要的声明”变量和“无聊的本地”变量,因此以这种方式使用“声明”和“本地”作为文档。

编辑1 -(对Karsten下面的评论的回应)-我不能再在下面添加评论了,但Karsten的评论让我思考,所以我做了以下测试,工作良好,AFAICT - Karsten如果你读了这篇文章,请从命令行提供一组准确的测试步骤,显示你假设存在的问题,因为以下步骤工作得很好:

$ return_a_string ret; echo $ret
The date is 20170104

(我刚刚将上面的函数粘贴到bash术语中后运行了这个程序——正如您所看到的,结果运行得很好。)

其他回答

虽然有很多很好的答案,但它们都不是我想要的方式。下面是我的解决方案,要点如下:

帮助健忘的程序员

至少我会努力记住错误检查之后,像这样:

允许用换行字符\n赋值

有些解决方案不允许这样做,因为有些解决方案忘记了要赋值周围的单引号。正确的方法:eval "${returnVariable}='${value}'"或者更好:参见下面的下一点。

使用printf代替eval

只需尝试使用类似myFunction "date && var2"的东西来解决这里的一些假定的解决方案。Eval会执行给它的任何东西。我只想分配值,所以我使用printf -v "${returnVariable}" "%s" "${value}"代替。

对变量名冲突的封装和保护

如果一个不同的用户或至少是对函数了解较少的人(这可能是几个月后的我)正在使用myFunction,我不希望他们知道他必须使用全局返回值名称或禁止使用某些变量名称。这就是为什么我在myFunction的顶部添加了一个名称检查:

    if [[ "${1}" = "returnVariable" ]]; then
        echo "Cannot give the ouput to \"returnVariable\" as a variable with the same name is used in myFunction()!"
        echo "If that is still what you want to do please do that outside of myFunction()!"
        return 1
    fi

注意,如果你需要检查很多变量,这也可以放在函数本身中。 如果我仍然想使用相同的名称(这里:returnVariable),我只是创建了一个缓冲变量,给myFunction,然后复制值returnVariable。

就是这样:

myFunction ():

myFunction() {
    if [[ "${1}" = "returnVariable" ]]; then
        echo "Cannot give the ouput to \"returnVariable\" as a variable with the same name is used in myFunction()!"
        echo "If that is still what you want to do please do that outside of myFunction()!"
        return 1
    fi
    if [[ "${1}" = "value" ]]; then
        echo "Cannot give the ouput to \"value\" as a variable with the same name is used in myFunction()!"
        echo "If that is still what you want to do please do that outside of myFunction()!"
        return 1
    fi
    local returnVariable="${1}"
    local value=$'===========\nHello World\n==========='
    echo "setting the returnVariable now..."
    printf -v "${returnVariable}" "%s" "${value}"
}

测试用例:

var1="I'm not greeting!"
myFunction var1
[[ $? -eq 0 ]] && echo "myFunction(): SUCCESS" || echo "myFunction(): FAILURE"
printf "var1:\n%s\n" "${var1}"

# Output:
# setting the returnVariable now...
# myFunction(): SUCCESS
# var1:
# ===========
# Hello World
# ===========
returnVariable="I'm not greeting!"
myFunction returnVariable
[[ $? -eq 0 ]] && echo "myFunction(): SUCCESS" || echo "myFunction(): FAILURE"
printf "returnVariable:\n%s\n" "${returnVariable}"

# Output
# Cannot give the ouput to "returnVariable" as a variable with the same name is used in myFunction()!
# If that is still what you want to do please do that outside of myFunction()!
# myFunction(): FAILURE
# returnVariable:
# I'm not greeting!
var2="I'm not greeting!"
myFunction "date && var2"
[[ $? -eq 0 ]] && echo "myFunction(): SUCCESS" || echo "myFunction(): FAILURE"
printf "var2:\n%s\n" "${var2}"

# Output
# setting the returnVariable now...
# ...myFunction: line ..: printf: `date && var2': not a valid identifier
# myFunction(): FAILURE
# var2:
# I'm not greeting!
myFunction var3
[[ $? -eq 0 ]] && echo "myFunction(): SUCCESS" || echo "myFunction(): FAILURE"
printf "var3:\n%s\n" "${var3}"

# Output
# setting the returnVariable now...
# myFunction(): SUCCESS
# var3:
# ===========
# Hello World
# ===========

Bash自2014年2月4.3版(?)起,除了“eval”之外,还明确支持引用变量或名称引用(namerefs),具有相同的性能和间接效果,并且在你的脚本中可能更清晰,也更难“忘记'eval'而不得不修复此错误”:

declare [-aAfFgilnrtux] [-p] [name[=value] ...]
typeset [-aAfFgilnrtux] [-p] [name[=value] ...]
  Declare variables and/or give them attributes
  ...
  -n Give each name the nameref attribute, making it a name reference
     to another variable.  That other variable is defined by the value
     of name.  All references and assignments to name, except for⋅
     changing the -n attribute itself, are performed on the variable
     referenced by name's value.  The -n attribute cannot be applied to
     array variables.
...
When used in a function, declare and typeset make each name local,
as with the local command, unless the -g option is supplied...

还有:

PARAMETERS A variable can be assigned the nameref attribute using the -n option to the declare or local builtin commands (see the descriptions of declare and local below) to create a nameref, or a reference to another variable. This allows variables to be manipulated indirectly. Whenever the nameref variable is⋅ referenced or assigned to, the operation is actually performed on the variable specified by the nameref variable's value. A nameref is commonly used within shell functions to refer to a variable whose name is passed as an argument to⋅ the function. For instance, if a variable name is passed to a shell function as its first argument, running declare -n ref=$1 inside the function creates a nameref variable ref whose value is the variable name passed as the first argument. References and assignments to ref are treated as references and assignments to the variable whose name was passed as⋅ $1. If the control variable in a for loop has the nameref attribute, the list of words can be a list of shell variables, and a name reference will be⋅ established for each word in the list, in turn, when the loop is executed. Array variables cannot be given the -n attribute. However, nameref variables can reference array variables and subscripted array variables. Namerefs can be⋅ unset using the -n option to the unset builtin. Otherwise, if unset is executed with the name of a nameref variable as an argument, the variable referenced by⋅ the nameref variable will be unset.

例如(EDIT 2:(谢谢你Ron)在函数内部变量名的命名空间(前缀),以最小化外部变量冲突,这最终应该正确地回答了Karsten在评论中提出的问题):

# $1 : string; your variable to contain the return value
function return_a_string () {
    declare -n ret=$1
    local MYLIB_return_a_string_message="The date is "
    MYLIB_return_a_string_message+=$(date)
    ret=$MYLIB_return_a_string_message
}

测试这个例子:

$ return_a_string result; echo $result
The date is 20160817

请注意,bash“declare”内置在函数中使用时,默认情况下会使声明的变量为“local”,并且“-n”也可以与“local”一起使用。

我更喜欢区分“重要的声明”变量和“无聊的本地”变量,因此以这种方式使用“声明”和“本地”作为文档。

编辑1 -(对Karsten下面的评论的回应)-我不能再在下面添加评论了,但Karsten的评论让我思考,所以我做了以下测试,工作良好,AFAICT - Karsten如果你读了这篇文章,请从命令行提供一组准确的测试步骤,显示你假设存在的问题,因为以下步骤工作得很好:

$ return_a_string ret; echo $ret
The date is 20170104

(我刚刚将上面的函数粘贴到bash术语中后运行了这个程序——正如您所看到的,结果运行得很好。)

They key problem of any 'named output variable' scheme where the caller can pass in the variable name (whether using eval or declare -n) is inadvertent aliasing, i.e. name clashes: From an encapsulation point of view, it's awful to not be able to add or rename a local variable in a function without checking ALL the function's callers first to make sure they're not wanting to pass that same name as the output parameter. (Or in the other direction, I don't want to have to read the source of the function I'm calling just to make sure the output parameter I intend to use is not a local in that function.)

解决这个问题的唯一方法是使用一个单独的专用输出变量,比如REPLY(由ev1m4chine建议),或者使用Ron Burk建议的约定。

但是,也可以让函数在内部使用固定的输出变量,然后在上面添加一些糖来对调用者隐藏这一事实,就像我在下面的示例中对call函数所做的那样。把这看作是概念的证明,但关键是

该函数总是将返回值赋给REPLY,也可以像往常一样返回退出码 从调用者的角度来看,返回值可以分配给任何变量(本地或全局),包括REPLY(参见包装器示例)。函数的退出码是传递的,因此在if或while或类似结构中使用它们可以正常工作。 从语法上讲,函数调用仍然是一条简单的语句。

这样做的原因是调用函数本身没有局部变量,并且除了REPLY之外不使用其他变量,从而避免了任何名称冲突的可能性。当调用方定义的输出变量名被赋值时,我们实际上处于调用方的作用域(技术上讲,在调用函数的相同作用域中),而不是在被调用函数的作用域中。

#!/bin/bash
function call() { # var=func [args ...]
  REPLY=; "${1#*=}" "${@:2}"; eval "${1%%=*}=\$REPLY; return $?"
}

function greet() {
  case "$1" in
    us) REPLY="hello";;
    nz) REPLY="kia ora";;
    *) return 123;;
  esac
}

function wrapper() {
  call REPLY=greet "$@"
}

function main() {
  local a b c d
  call a=greet us
  echo "a='$a' ($?)"
  call b=greet nz
  echo "b='$b' ($?)"
  call c=greet de
  echo "c='$c' ($?)"
  call d=wrapper us
  echo "d='$d' ($?)"
}
main

输出:

a='hello' (0)
b='kia ora' (0)
c='' (123)
d='hello' (0)

提醒薇姬·罗嫩,考虑一下下面的代码

function use_global
{
    eval "$1='changed using a global var'"
}

function capture_output
{
    echo "always changed"
}

function test_inside_a_func
{
    local _myvar='local starting value'
    echo "3. $_myvar"

    use_global '_myvar'
    echo "4. $_myvar"

    _myvar=$( capture_output )
    echo "5. $_myvar"
}

function only_difference
{
    local _myvar='local starting value'
    echo "7. $_myvar"

    local use_global '_myvar'
    echo "8. $_myvar"

    local _myvar=$( capture_output )
    echo "9. $_myvar"
}

declare myvar='global starting value'
echo "0. $myvar"

use_global 'myvar'
echo "1. $myvar"

myvar=$( capture_output )
echo "2. $myvar"

test_inside_a_func
echo "6. $_myvar" # this was local inside the above function

only_difference

将会给

0. global starting value
1. changed using a global var
2. always changed
3. local starting value
4. changed using a global var
5. always changed
6. 
7. local starting value
8. local starting value
9. always changed

也许正常的场景是使用test_inside_a_func函数中使用的语法,因此在大多数情况下可以同时使用这两种方法,尽管捕获输出是在任何情况下都能工作的更安全的方法,它模仿在其他语言中可以找到的函数的返回值,Vicky Ronnen正确地指出了这一点。

最直接和健壮的解决方案是使用命令替换,就像其他人写的那样:

assign()
{
    local x
    x="Test"
    echo "$x"
}

x=$(assign) # This assigns string "Test" to x

缺点是性能,因为这需要一个单独的过程。

本主题中建议的另一种技术,即传递要赋值的变量的名称作为参数,有副作用,我不推荐它的基本形式。问题是,你可能需要函数中的一些变量来计算返回值,可能发生的情况是,用于存储返回值的变量的名称会干扰其中一个:

assign()
{
    local x
    x="Test"
    eval "$1=\$x"
}

assign y # This assigns string "Test" to y, as expected

assign x # This will NOT assign anything to x in this scope
         # because the name "x" is declared as local inside the function

当然,您可以不将函数的内部变量声明为局部变量,但您确实应该始终这样做,否则另一方面,如果存在同名的父作用域,则可能会意外地覆盖父作用域中不相关的变量。

一个可能的解决方法是显式声明传递的变量为全局变量:

assign()
{
    local x
    eval declare -g $1
    x="Test"
    eval "$1=\$x"
}

If name "x" is passed as an argument, the second row of the function body will overwrite the previous local declaration. But the names themselves might still interfere, so if you intend to use the value previously stored in the passed variable prior to write the return value there, be aware that you must copy it into another local variable at the very beginning; otherwise the result will be unpredictable! Besides, this will only work in the most recent version of BASH, namely 4.2. More portable code might utilize explicit conditional constructs with the same effect:

assign()
{
    if [[ $1 != x ]]; then
      local x
    fi
    x="Test"
    eval "$1=\$x"
}

也许最优雅的解决方案是为函数返回值和保留一个全局名称 在您编写的每个函数中一致地使用它。