Passing parameters to a Bash function

Question

I am trying to search how to pass parameters in a Bash function, but what comes up is always how to pass parameter from the command line.

I would like to pass parameters within my script. I tried:

myBackupFunction("..", "...", "xx")

function myBackupFunction($directory, $options, $rootPassword) {
     ...
}

But the syntax is not correct, how to pass a parameter to my function?

Answer 1

If you prefer named parameters, it's possible (with a few tricks) to actually pass named parameters to functions (also makes it possible to pass arrays and references).

The method I developed allows you to define named parameters passed to a function like this:

function example { args : string firstName , string lastName , integer age } {
  echo "My name is ${firstName} ${lastName} and I am ${age} years old."
}

You can also annotate arguments as @required or @readonly, create ...rest arguments, create arrays from sequential arguments (using e.g. string[4]) and optionally list the arguments in multiple lines:

function example {
  args
    : @required string firstName
    : string lastName
    : integer age
    : string[] ...favoriteHobbies

  echo "My name is ${firstName} ${lastName} and I am ${age} years old."
  echo "My favorite hobbies include: ${favoriteHobbies[*]}"
}

In other words, not only you can call your parameters by their names (which makes up for a more readable core), you can actually pass arrays (and references to variables - this feature works only in bash 4.3 though)! Plus, the mapped variables are all in the local scope, just as $1 (and others).

The code that makes this work is pretty light and works both in bash 3 and bash 4 (these are the only versions I've tested it with). If you're interested in more tricks like this that make developing with bash much nicer and easier, you can take a look at my Bash Infinity Framework, the code below is available as one of its functionalities.

shopt -s expand_aliases

function assignTrap {
  local evalString
  local -i paramIndex=${__paramIndex-0}
  local initialCommand="${1-}"

  if [[ "$initialCommand" != ":" ]]
  then
    echo "trap - DEBUG; eval \"${__previousTrap}\"; unset __previousTrap; unset __paramIndex;"
    return
  fi

  while [[ "${1-}" == "," || "${1-}" == "${initialCommand}" ]] || [[ "${#@}" -gt 0 && "$paramIndex" -eq 0 ]]
  do
    shift # first colon ":" or next parameter's comma ","
    paramIndex+=1
    local -a decorators=()
    while [[ "${1-}" == "@"* ]]
    do
      decorators+=( "$1" )
      shift
    done

    local declaration=
    local wrapLeft='"'
    local wrapRight='"'
    local nextType="$1"
    local length=1

    case ${nextType} in
      string | boolean) declaration="local " ;;
      integer) declaration="local -i" ;;
      reference) declaration="local -n" ;;
      arrayDeclaration) declaration="local -a"; wrapLeft= ; wrapRight= ;;
      assocDeclaration) declaration="local -A"; wrapLeft= ; wrapRight= ;;
      "string["*"]") declaration="local -a"; length="${nextType//[a-z\[\]]}" ;;
      "integer["*"]") declaration="local -ai"; length="${nextType//[a-z\[\]]}" ;;
    esac

    if [[ "${declaration}" != "" ]]
    then
      shift
      local nextName="$1"

      for decorator in "${decorators[@]}"
      do
        case ${decorator} in
          @readonly) declaration+="r" ;;
          @required) evalString+="[[ ! -z \$${paramIndex} ]] || echo \"Parameter '$nextName' ($nextType) is marked as required by '${FUNCNAME[1]}' function.\"; " >&2 ;;
          @global) declaration+="g" ;;
        esac
      done

      local paramRange="$paramIndex"

      if [[ -z "$length" ]]
      then
        # ...rest
        paramRange="{@:$paramIndex}"
        # trim leading ...
        nextName="${nextName//\./}"
        if [[ "${#@}" -gt 1 ]]
        then
          echo "Unexpected arguments after a rest array ($nextName) in '${FUNCNAME[1]}' function." >&2
        fi
      elif [[ "$length" -gt 1 ]]
      then
        paramRange="{@:$paramIndex:$length}"
        paramIndex+=$((length - 1))
      fi

      evalString+="${declaration} ${nextName}=${wrapLeft}\$${paramRange}${wrapRight}; "

      # continue to the next param:
      shift
    fi
  done
  echo "${evalString} local -i __paramIndex=${paramIndex};"
}

alias args='local __previousTrap=$(trap -p DEBUG); trap "eval \"\$(assignTrap \$BASH_COMMAND)\";" DEBUG;'

Answer 2

I hope this example can help you. It takes two numbers from the user, feeds them to the function called add (in the very last line of the code), and add will sum them up and print them.

#!/bin/bash

read -p "Enter the first  value: " x
read -p "Enter the second value: " y

add(){
    arg1=$1 #arg1 gets to be the first  assigned argument (note there are no spaces)
    arg2=$2 #arg2 gets to be the second assigned argument (note there are no spaces)

    echo $(($arg1 + $arg2))
}

add x y #feeding the arguments

Answer 3

Knowledge of high level programming languages (C/C++/Java/PHP/Python/Perl ...) would suggest to the layman that bash functions should work like they do in those other languages. Instead, bash functions work like shell commands and expect arguments to be passed to them in the same way one might pass an option to a shell command (ls -l). In effect, function arguments in bash are treated as positional parameters ($1, $2..$9, ${10}, ${11}, and so on). This is no surprise considering how getopts works. Parentheses are not required to call a function in bash.

---

(Note: I happen to be working on Open Solaris at the moment.)

# bash style declaration for all you PHP/JavaScript junkies. :-)
# $1 is the directory to archive
# $2 is the name of the tar and zipped file when all is done.
function backupWebRoot ()
{
    tar -cvf - $1 | zip -n .jpg:.gif:.png $2 - 2>> $errorlog &&
        echo -e "\nTarball created!\n"
}


# sh style declaration for the purist in you. ;-)
# $1 is the directory to archive
# $2 is the name of the tar and zipped file when all is done.
backupWebRoot ()
{
    tar -cvf - $1 | zip -n .jpg:.gif:.png $2 - 2>> $errorlog &&
        echo -e "\nTarball created!\n"
}


#In the actual shell script
#$0               $1            $2

backupWebRoot ~/public/www/ webSite.tar.zip

Answer 4

A simple example that will clear both during executing script or inside script while calling a function.

#!/bin/bash
echo "parameterized function example"
function print_param_value(){
    value1="${1}" # $1 represent first argument
    value2="${2}" # $2 represent second argument
    echo "param 1 is  ${value1}" #as string
    echo "param 2 is ${value2}"
    sum=$(($value1+$value2)) #process them as number
    echo "The sum of two value is ${sum}"
}
print_param_value "6" "4" #space sparted value
#you can also pass paramter durign executing script
print_param_value "$1" "$2" #parameter $1 and $2 during executing

#suppose our script name is param_example
# call like this 
# ./param_example 5 5
# now the param will be $1=5 and $2=5

Answer 5

Miss out the parens and commas:

 myBackupFunction ".." "..." "xx"

and the function should look like this:

function myBackupFunction() {
   # here $1 is the first parameter, $2 the second etc.
}

Answer 6

Thought I'd pipe in with mention of another way to pass named parameters to bash... passing by reference. This is supported as of bash 4.0

#!/bin/bash
function myBackupFunction(){ # directory options destination filename
local directory="$1" options="$2" destination="$3" filename="$4";
  echo "tar cz ${!options} ${!directory} | ssh root@backupserver \"cat > /mnt/${!destination}/${!filename}.tgz\"";
}

declare -A backup=([directory]=".." [options]="..." [destination]="backups" [filename]="backup" );

myBackupFunction backup[directory] backup[options] backup[destination] backup[filename];

An alternative syntax for bash 4.3 is using a nameref

Although the nameref is a lot more convenient in that it seamlessly dereferences, some older supported distros still ship an older version so I won't recommend it quite yet.