I'm trying to add elements to a bash array, and I cannot figure out why they are not added:
$ cat /tmp/tmp.bash
#!/bin/bash
declare -a base=(
"python"
"python-setuptools"
)
packages=( "${base[*]}" "tools" "oracle" )
echo "$packages"
$ /tmp/tmp.bash
python python-setuptools
$
In the output, we only see the base array elements, but not the two I added.
Any idea what am I doing wrong?
$packages expands to just the first element. To print all array elements write:
echo "${packages[@]}"
Similarly, when you expand $base you should use @ not *. * causes "python" and "python-setuptools" to be concatenated into a single array entry: python python-setuptools".
packages=( "${base[@]}" "tools" "oracle" )
Also note that there's no need to quote simple string literals. You could omit them.
base=(
python
python-setuptools
)
packages=("${base[@]}" tools oracle)
echo "${packages[@]}"
+=( ) to append to an array: packages+=(tools oracle)