Linda Walsh wrote:
> DJ Mills wrote:
> >> Because a subshell cannot access the global variables of the parent.
> >
> > A subshell can access its parent's variables. foo=bar; ( echo "$foo" )
> >
> > A sub process cannot, unless the variables are exported. It does
> > not sound like you need to do so here.
>
> I'm not sure about your terminology -- a subshell is a
> subprocess. By my understanding, "{}" defines a complex statement
> and "()" defines both a subshell which is in a separate process,
Yes, but it is a fork(2) of the parent shell and all of the variables
from the parent are copied along with the fork into the child process
and that includes non-exported variables. Normally you would expect
that a subprocess wouldn't have access to parent shell variables
unless they were exported. But with a subshell a copy of all
variables are available.
Bob
