How to set a variable in shell using script without sourcing it?

Question

I have a script which sets some variable, now I know to set them for a session I should source it. But my problem is I am using some relative path in the script, so if I source the script those path don't work. How to solve this. Please see my example script:

#!/bin/bash

BASEDIR=$(dirname "$0")
source $BASEDIR/../.text_formatter #Invoke the formatter bash script

export var1 = 1

I have added the path of the script in PATH, so that I can run this script as a program. But if I source the script I get error no such file or directory: ./../.text_formatter. If I dont source it, obviously the var1 value does not persist. How to solve this issue ? I would like to avoid source, so that user can directly run this as a program, but would like to know if solution exists with source also.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-13 12:36:27Z

1

You can't work around the need to source it since otherwise the script will run in a subprocess and cannot affect the shell.

However, you can fix the relative path issue using the solution outlined here.

edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:36

CommunityBot

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answered Dec 26, 2016 at 7:37

merlin2011

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