[newbie] Dereferencing exported variable?

[littlebigman]

Hello

This is probably a very easy thing to do, but I don't know how: I'd like to export an env't variable, and then use its reference in a Bash script

# export MYDIR=/tmp

# echo $MYDIR
/tmp

# find $(MYDIR)/user/lua/ -type f -name auxiliar.h
MYDIR: command not found
find: `/user/lua/': No such file or directory

FWIW, the script is running on Ubuntu 10.04.

Thank you for any help.

[drl]

Hi.

Use curly braces - {} - not parentheses - () ... cheers, drl

[Cabhan]

drl is 100% correct.

To be a bit more specific, ${foo} prints out the value of the foo variable. $(foo) runs the command "foo" and is replaced with its output.

In your particular case, you can just say $MYDIR/usr/lua, because '/' cannot be part of a variable name, so Bash knows that the name of the variable is just MYDIR.

[littlebigman]

Thanks for the tip. I saw this command in a Makefile and was wondering why it didn't work when I typed it at a Bash prompt.

[Cabhan]

Ah, well, in Makefiles, $(var) is the command for a variable . Makefile scripting isn't the same as Bash scripting.

[littlebigman]

Yup, that's what it looks like