On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 10:34:40AM +0100, Harald Dunkel wrote: > Hi folks, > > I am not sure, but shouldn't bash 5.1.4 complain about > > : ${SSLDIR}:="${JM_WORK}/ssl"}
There's no syntax error here. It may be a bug, in the sense that it doesn't do what you wanted it to do, but from the shell's point of view, it's a valid command. You've got ${SSLDIR} which is a parameter expansion, not quoted. You've also got ${JM_WORK} which is another parameter expansion, this time inside quotes. In addition, you've got the literal character strings := and /ssl and } which are just extra text. The resulting command, after expansions, may look something like this: : /foo/bar:=/home/jm/work/ssl} This command has no effect. > at least due to unbalanced parenthesis? The correct version > would be > > : ${SSLDIR:="${JM_WORK}/ssl"} That's a very different command indeed. That one potentially modifies the value of the SSLDIR variable.