In bash, how to store a return value in a variable?

Question

I know some very basic commands in Linux and am trying to write some scripts. I have written a function which evaluates the sum of last 2-digits in a 5-digit number. The fun

Answer 1

The return value (aka exit code) is a value in the range 0 to 255 inclusive. It's used to indicate success or failure, not to return information. Any value outside this range will be wrapped.

To return information, like your number, use

echo "$value"

To print additional information that you don't want captured, use

echo "my irrelevant info" >&2 

Finally, to capture it, use what you did:

 result=$(password_formula)

In other words:

echo "enter: "
        read input

password_formula()
{
        length=${#input}
        last_two=${input:length-2:length}
        first=`echo $last_two| sed -e 's/\(.\)/\1 /g'|awk '{print $2}'`
        second=`echo $last_two| sed -e 's/\(.\)/\1 /g'|awk '{print $1}'`
        let sum=$first+$second
        sum_len=${#sum}
        echo $second >&2
        echo $sum >&2

        if [ $sum -gt 9 ]
        then
               sum=${sum:1}
        fi

        value=$second$sum$first
        echo $value
}
result=$(password_formula)
echo "The value is $result"

Answer 2

The answer above suggests changing the function to echo data rather than return it so that it can be captured.

For a function or program that you can't modify where the return value needs to be saved to a variable (like test/[, which returns a 0/1 success value), echo $? within the command substitution:

# Test if we're remote.
isRemote="$(test -z "$REMOTE_ADDR"; echo $?)"
# Or:
isRemote="$([ -z "$REMOTE_ADDR" ]; echo $?)"

# Additionally you may want to reverse the 0 (success) / 1 (error) values
# for your own sanity, using arithmetic expansion:
remoteAddrIsEmpty="$([ -z "$REMOTE_ADDR" ]; echo $((1-$?)))"

E.g.

$ echo $REMOTE_ADDR

$ test -z "$REMOTE_ADDR"; echo $?
0
$ REMOTE_ADDR=127.0.0.1
$ test -z "$REMOTE_ADDR"; echo $?
1
$ retval="$(test -z "$REMOTE_ADDR"; echo $?)"; echo $retval
1
$ unset REMOTE_ADDR
$ retval="$(test -z "$REMOTE_ADDR"; echo $?)"; echo $retval
0

For a program which prints data but also has a return value to be saved, the return value would be captured separately from the output:

# Two different files, 1 and 2.
$ cat 1
1
$ cat 2
2
$ diffs="$(cmp 1 2)"
$ haveDiffs=$?
$ echo "Have differences? [$haveDiffs] Diffs: [$diffs]"
Have differences? [1] Diffs: [1 2 differ: char 1, line 1]
$ diffs="$(cmp 1 1)"
$ haveDiffs=$?
$ echo "Have differences? [$haveDiffs] Diffs: [$diffs]"
Have differences? [0] Diffs: []

# Or again, if you just want a success variable, reverse with arithmetic expansion:
$ cmp -s 1 2; filesAreIdentical=$((1-$?))
$ echo $filesAreIdentical
0

Answer 3

It is easy you need to echo the value you need to return and then capture it like below

demofunc(){
    local variable="hellow"
    echo $variable    
}

val=$(demofunc)
echo $val

Answer 4

Use the special bash variable "$?" like so:

function_output=$(my_function)
function_return_value=$?

Answer 5

It's due to the echo statements. You could switch your echos to prints and return with an echo. Below works

#!/bin/bash

set -x
echo "enter: "
read input

function password_formula
{
        length=${#input}
        last_two=${input:length-2:length}
        first=`echo $last_two| sed -e 's/\(.\)/\1 /g'|awk '{print $2}'`
        second=`echo $last_two| sed -e 's/\(.\)/\1 /g'|awk '{print $1}'`
        let sum=$first+$second
        sum_len=${#sum}
        print $second
        print $sum

        if [ $sum -gt 9 ]
        then
           sum=${sum:1}
        fi

        value=$second$sum$first
        echo $value
}
result=$(password_formula)
echo $result

Answer 6

Something like this could be used, and still maintaining meanings of return (to return control signals) and echo (to return information) and logging statements (to print debug/info messages).

v_verbose=1
v_verbose_f=""         # verbose file name
FLAG_BGPID=""

e_verbose() {
        if [[ $v_verbose -ge 0 ]]; then
                v_verbose_f=$(tempfile)
                tail -f $v_verbose_f &
                FLAG_BGPID="$!"
        fi
}

d_verbose() {
        if [[ x"$FLAG_BGPID" != "x" ]]; then
                kill $FLAG_BGPID > /dev/null
                FLAG_BGPID=""
                rm -f $v_verbose_f > /dev/null
        fi
}

init() {
        e_verbose

        trap cleanup SIGINT SIGQUIT SIGKILL SIGSTOP SIGTERM SIGHUP SIGTSTP
}

cleanup() {
        d_verbose
}

init

fun1() {
    echo "got $1" >> $v_verbose_f
    echo "got $2" >> $v_verbose_f
    echo "$(( $1 + $2 ))"
    return 0
}

a=$(fun1 10 20)
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
    echo ">>sum: $a"
else
    echo "error: $?"
fi
cleanup

In here, I'm redirecting debug messages to separate file, that is watched by tail, and if there is any changes then printing the change, trap is used to make sure that background process always ends.

This behavior can also be achieved using redirection to /dev/stderr, But difference can be seen at the time of piping output of one command to input of other command.