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    I don't understand what you're trying to do since none of your examples are correct syntax. What pipe? What is myvar supposed to contain? Could you give an example with a real command and explain what output you want to save? And what do you have against subshells anyway? Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 10:22
  • I don’t even understand why $myvar does not contain foo in my examples. After all, foo should be in stdin. I simplified the example on purpose. The echo foo thing is actually a more complicated command changing global variables, which won’t work if it’s in a subshell. Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 10:26
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    Sorry, but you're pretty much stuck with using subshells, even if you don't want to use them. Each command in pipes is executed in subshells too, see stackoverflow.com/a/5760832/3701431 Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 10:35
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    Yes, you can edit variables in a subshell and no, you can't assign the output if a command to a variable without a subshell. This is what's known as an XY problem. Please edit your question and explain what you are actually trying to do. Give an example of code that reproduces your problem and we should be able to help you out. Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 10:55
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    @Parckwart no, all commands in a pipeline are executed in subshells. See the "Pipelines" section in man bash. Just give us a complete example and we can help you out. Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 10:57