Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]: Machine: i386 OS: darwin10.7.1 Compiler: /usr/bin/gcc-4.2 Compilation CFLAGS: -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i386' -DCONF_OSTYPE='darwin10.7.1' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i386-apple-darwin10.7.1' -DCONF_VENDOR='apple' -DLOCALEDIR='/opt/local/share/locale' -DPACKAGE='bash' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DMACOSX -I. -I. -I./include -I./lib -I/opt/local/include -pipe -O2 -arch x86_64 uname output: Darwin Myst 10.7.4 Darwin Kernel Version 10.7.4: Mon Apr 18 21:24:17 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1504.14.12~3/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64 Machine Type: i386-apple-darwin10.7.1
Bash Version: 4.2 Patch Level: 8 Release Status: release Description: Bash now allows us to use negative array indexes to address array elements relative to the end of the array: arr=(a b c); echo "${arr[-1]}" In line with that, I'd like to propose extending that functionality to other operations that address array elements: echo "${arr[@]:0:-1}" # Expected: c echo "${arr[@]:1:-2}" # Expected: a c