On 12/20/10 3:52 AM, jens.schmid...@arcor.de wrote: >> -u Treat unset variables as an error when substituting. >> >> I think the behaviour is consistent with the documentation. > > The question is rather when to consider a variable set or unset. > > For me, an empty string (or empty commadline) is as set or as > unset as an empty array. But I don't get an "unbound error" when > accessing an empty string (or empty commandline), and I get one > when accessing an empty array.
As the man page says: A parameter is set if it has been assigned a value. The null string is a valid value. Maybe I should add that an array has to have at least one index assigned to be considered set. The positional parameters are a special case, since that's what Posix decided. Chet -- ``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU c...@case.edu http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/