Re: Option for read to handle incomplete last line

[Martin Schulte]

Hi Greg, hi *!

> For bash scripts using this, I'd go a little bit fancier:
> 
> read_line() {
>   if (($# == 0)) || [[ ${!#} = -* ]]; then
>     declare -n _rl_lastvar=REPLY
>   else
>     declare -n _rl_lastvar=${!#}
>   fi
>   read -r "$@" || test -n "$_rl_lastvar"
> }

Great, thanks - this solution seems to solve more real world problems than it 
introduces ;-)

> This intentionally skips a trailing incomplete line that has too few
> fields, as in:
>
> ...
>
> The incomplete line here only has one field, so the "lastvar" (b) is
> empty, and therefore the incomplete line isn't counted.  I consider
> this a feature, but others may not.

Yes, one might discuss this...

Nevertheless, am I right that this solution relies on an undocumented feature?

Best regards

Martin