On Fri, Jul 2, 2021 at 9:24 AM Alex fxmbsw7 Ratchev <fxmb...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> jobsn=( $( jobs -p ) ) jobsn=${jobsn[@]}
>
This give
PW$ jobsn=( $( jobs -p ) ) jobsn=${jobsn[@]}
PW$ echo $jobsn
3644 3645 3646 3647
I guess you meant jobsn=${#jobsn[@]}
^ You missed the '#'
Yet there are some left over
PW$ jobsn=( $( jobs -p ) ) jobsn=${#jobsn[@]}
PW$ echo ${jobsn[@]}
4 3645 3646 3647
So it is not clean, and the OP want a function with a named output arg.
Yet to elaborate on your technic may be this one is a little cleaner
PW$ jobsn=$(printf '%c' $(jobs -p)) jobsn=${#jobsn} ; echo $jobsn
4
