Re: indirect assignment to array

[Stephane Chazelas <stephane@chazelas.org>]

2020-04-16 01:42:29 +0200, Pier Paolo Grassi:
> Il giorno gio 16 apr 2020 alle ore 01:13 Mikael Magnusson <mikachu@gmail.com>
> ha scritto:
[...]
> > : ${(PA)varname::=$array}
> > (leave out the A for scalar assignment, and use AA for assoc arrays).
[...]
> Thanks! I was afraid I had to resort to eval.
[...]

What's wrong with "eval"? Note that many of those alternatives
to "eval" are just other evals in disguise or are as dangerous
(but giving the wrong impression that they're not).

: ${(PA)varname::=$array}

is a command injection vulnerability if the content of $varname
is not sanitized.


$ varname='x[$(uname>&2)]'
$ : ${(PA)varname::=$array}
Linux
zsh: bad math expression: empty string

So is:

eval $varname'=("$array[@]")'

but at least it's more obvious that it is.

In any case, I'd expect the contents of $varname to be known and
trusted in this case, while that of $array could be anything.

Note that that "$array[@]" (instead of $array) is needed to
preserve empty elements.

-- 
Stephane