Re: [Help-bash] Updating global variable from recursing function.

[Frans de Boer]

On 04/02/2012 09:17 PM, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 09:08:12PM +0200, Frans de Boer wrote:
> > Strange, it is working fine, the counter is incremented but the result
> > is never propagated to the real global variable, as shown by the bash -x
> > output.
>
> imadev:~$ cat foo
> #!/bin/bash
>
> foo() {
>    local i=7
>    if ((i>  max)); then max=$i; fi
> }
>
> max=0
> foo
> echo "max is $max"
>
> imadev:~$ ./foo
> max is 7
>
>
> > Every time the function returns to the caller, the iHiMDirNest is
> > restored to the level it was before being calling.
>
> That suggests that the variable is in fact local, in some scope or
> other.  Are you sure you showed us the *uppermost* scope?  For example,
> this would do it:
>
> imadev:~$ cat bar
> #!/bin/bash
>
> bar() {
>    local max
>    foo "$@"
> }
>
> foo() {
>    local i=7
>    if ((i>  max)); then max=$i; fi
>    echo "inside foo, max=$max"
> }
>
> max=0
> bar
> echo "at global scope, max is $max"
>
> imadev:~$ ./bar
> inside foo, max=7
> at global scope, max is 0

I stand corrected:
#!/bin/sh
#
declare -i iTest1=0
declare -i iMax=7

function recursetest () {

 iTest1=$((iTest1+1))
 if (( iTest1 < iMax )); then recursetest; fi
}

function testcaller () {
  recursetest
}

echo "1 - recursetest=$iTest1"
testcaller
echo "2 - recursetest=$iTest1"
------------------
Is producing the right result while using [[ does not.
That leaves a puzzle for me to check why the trace showed correct 
results before a return.

Anyhow, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Regards, Frans.