7

I am trying to summarize multiple shell scripts within one large shell script, such as this:

#!/bin/sh
bash script1.sh
bash script2.sh
bash script3.sh

All scripts share the same variables var and var2. I wanted to delete the variable definitions from the individual shell scripts and put it into the large shell script instead, so that when I change the value of the variables I only have to do that once.

However, when I do

#!/bin/sh
var1="1"
var2="2"
bash script1.sh
bash script2.sh
bash script3.sh

the variables are not recognised by the references $var1 and $var2 in the individual shell scripts.

Apologies if the question has been asked before, I am new to scripting in general and didn't know what to search for.

It would also be nice to know how I could loop over the scripts with multiple variable inputs, such as

var1="1 2 3 4 5"
var2="a b c d e"
for i in $var1;do for j in $var2;do
script1.sh
script2.sh
done;done
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1
  • ...maybe put those variables in one shell snippet and "source" them in all scripts? Commented May 30, 2014 at 12:20

2 Answers 2

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15

When you run scripts 1-3 inside your main script, they are each run inside their own sub-shell, which is why they don't recognise the variables defined in their parent shell. Use export to make variables available to sub-shells:

#!/bin/sh
export var1="1"
export var2="2"
bash script1.sh
bash script2.sh
bash script3.sh

An alternative (relevant for your second question) would be to pass the variables to the scripts as positional parameters:

#!/bin/sh
var1="1"
var2="2"
bash script1.sh "$var1" "$var2"
bash script2.sh "$var1" "$var2"
bash script3.sh "$var1" "$var2"

Inside scripts 1-3, these variables would then be available as $1 and $2 respectively.

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1
  • Note that if you want changes made to the variables by any of the child scripts to persist then you should use "source" in place of "bash", Commented Jun 16, 2023 at 14:00
-1

I tried this:

setup_env

var1="1"
var2="2"

script.sh

#!/bin/sh
bash script1.sh
bash script2.sh
bash script3.sh

script*.sh

source setup_env
...
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2
  • To all the downvoters, may I know why? I can try to correct it. Commented Nov 21, 2023 at 18:42
  • sorry don't know much about your problem, but there are people on here who enjoy the power to downvote others where possible. They don't care to help. Commented Jan 4, 2024 at 1:24

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