Re: is variable with variable name possible?

[Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com>]

The reply quoted below got hung up on my server for several hours
because a CentOS upgrade clobbered my sendmail configuration, which I
didn't notice immediately.  Restored from backup (which is why I'm up
at 1:30am) and it finally went out.  In the interim the discussion has
pointed out an omission I made.

On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 7:26 AM, Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com> wrote:
>
> You can also use ${somevar::=$(pwd)} anywhere that you'd reference the
> value of $somevar, including the no-op command:
>
>    : ${somevar::=$(pwd)}
>
>    : ${(As:/:)somevar::=$(pwd)}

The bit I forgot is that to get the effect desired in the original
message, you must add the (P) flag to each of the above, as in:

: ${(P)somevar::=$(pwd)}

: ${(PAs:/:)somevar::=$(pwd)}

As long as I'm expostulating I'll add that "somevar" can even be a
positional parameter, both with and without the (P) flag.  E.g.

: ${(As:/:)1::=$(pwd)}

will splice the current directory hierarchy into the front of "$@".