Can a shell script set environment variables of the calling shell? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Another workaround that I don't see mentioned is to write the variable value to a file.

I ran into a very similar issue where I wanted to be able to run the last set test (instead of all my tests). My first plan was to write one command for setting the env variable TESTCASE, and then have another command that would use this to run the test. Needless to say that I had the same exact issue as you did.

But then I came up with this simple hack:

First command ( testset ):

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -eq 1 ]
then
  echo $1 > ~/.TESTCASE
  echo "TESTCASE has been set to: $1"
else
  echo "Come again?"
fi

Second command (testrun ):

#!/bin/bash

TESTCASE=$(cat ~/.TESTCASE)
drush test-run $TESTCASE