gA: declare and assign vs. declare then assign

[Carlos Pita]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: i686
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i686'
-DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i686-pc-linux-gnu'
-DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DLOCALEDIR='/usr/share/locale' -DPACKAGE='bash'
-DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.  -I. -I./include -I./lib
-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -march=i686 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe
-fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4
-DDEFAULT_PATH_VALUE='/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin'
-DSTANDARD_UTILS_PATH='/usr/bin' -DSYS_BASHRC='/etc/bash.bashrc'
-DSYS_BASH_LOGOUT='/etc/bash.bash_logout'
uname output: Linux localhost 3.12.5-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Dec 12
13:32:40 CET 2013 i686 GNU/Linux
Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 4.2
Patch Level: 45
Release Status: release

Description:

  When declaring a global associative array inside a function and
  assigning a value to it at the same time, then the array is not
  globally visible. This doesn't happen if I declare the array first and
  then do the assignment. That is:

  Buggy?:
    function f {
      declare -gA a=([a]=2 [b]=4)
    }

  Ok:
    function f {
      declare -gA a; a4=([a]=2 [b]=4)
    }

  I'm not sure if this is related to this previous report of mine:

    http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2013-09/msg00025.html

  If it is, at least I could say I've found a workaround :).

Repeat-By:

  function f1 {
    declare -ga a1=([1]=2 [2]=4)
    declare -p a1
  }

  function f2 {
    declare -gA a2=([a]=2 [b]=4)
    declare -p a2
  }

  function f3 {
    declare -ga a3; a3=([1]=2 [2]=4)
    declare -p a3
  }

  function f4 {
    declare -gA a4; a4=([a]=2 [b]=4)
    declare -p a4
  }

  declare -A a5=([a]=2 [b]=4)

  f1
  f2
  f3
  f4

  declare -p a1
  declare -p a2
  declare -p a3
  declare -p a4
  declare -p a5