Re: Printing arrays for use with $()

[DervishD <zsh@dervishd.net>]

    Hi Bart :)

 * Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com> dixit:
> On Aug 11,  6:16pm, DervishD wrote:
> }     Is there any way for printing the array to stdout and being able
> } to use that output as arguments for another command?
> The short answer is, no.

    Oh :(
 
> (1) you need a command that reads from standard input rather than
> taking command line arguments, or

    Possible on some commands only. This list is going to be used in
many commands like 'cp', 'du', 'pax' and even in other scripts.

> (2) you must be in control of the command line so that you can do the
> appropriate parsing yourself.

    Impossible for most commands. Not many commands accept NULL
separated arguments (I can always use xargs, but it's a mess
sometimes).

    So, if I must pass a list of filenames from one app to another in
the most generic way, which are my options? The problem is that the
script that generates the lists must function just the same as the
shell itself when globbing, I mean, it's output must be
indistinguishable from a simple glob. These two command lines must be
equivalent:

    du -s *.whatever
    du -s `myscript`

    If I could return an array from the script, it would do too, but
since it is executed in a subshell, that's impossible, am I wrong?

    Thanks a lot for your fast answer, Bart :)

    Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado

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