Maintaining several constants for several bash scripts

Multi tool use
I have several individual bash scripts. They do different things, and are large (70-100 lines each). Thus I have kept them in separate files. But they are all related to a central problem and hence share several constant values in common.
So, for simplicity, I have ten constant variables, some are strings, some are numbers, while two are arrays, all of which need to be available throughout ten different bash scripts. How do I achieve this?
Note that while there is a central main.sh
which can call these individual bash scripts, this won't always be the case. They can also be called directly from the command line (./script1.sh
). Even in that case the variables should be made available to the scripts.
The only way I thought of was that to code in dev/script1.temp.sh
files, and every time I need to run any file, I run a build.sh
bash script that simply replaced (via grep
) all occurrences of a particular constant ($CONSTANT
) throughout the file to produce build/script1.sh
.
bash shell-script
New contributor
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
I have several individual bash scripts. They do different things, and are large (70-100 lines each). Thus I have kept them in separate files. But they are all related to a central problem and hence share several constant values in common.
So, for simplicity, I have ten constant variables, some are strings, some are numbers, while two are arrays, all of which need to be available throughout ten different bash scripts. How do I achieve this?
Note that while there is a central main.sh
which can call these individual bash scripts, this won't always be the case. They can also be called directly from the command line (./script1.sh
). Even in that case the variables should be made available to the scripts.
The only way I thought of was that to code in dev/script1.temp.sh
files, and every time I need to run any file, I run a build.sh
bash script that simply replaced (via grep
) all occurrences of a particular constant ($CONSTANT
) throughout the file to produce build/script1.sh
.
bash shell-script
New contributor
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
You could either set them as environment variables so they are the same across every executed script, or keep them all in a file which you parse during the start of every script. Which solution do you prefer? I'd suggest environment variables.
– Panki
13 hours ago
add a comment |
I have several individual bash scripts. They do different things, and are large (70-100 lines each). Thus I have kept them in separate files. But they are all related to a central problem and hence share several constant values in common.
So, for simplicity, I have ten constant variables, some are strings, some are numbers, while two are arrays, all of which need to be available throughout ten different bash scripts. How do I achieve this?
Note that while there is a central main.sh
which can call these individual bash scripts, this won't always be the case. They can also be called directly from the command line (./script1.sh
). Even in that case the variables should be made available to the scripts.
The only way I thought of was that to code in dev/script1.temp.sh
files, and every time I need to run any file, I run a build.sh
bash script that simply replaced (via grep
) all occurrences of a particular constant ($CONSTANT
) throughout the file to produce build/script1.sh
.
bash shell-script
New contributor
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
I have several individual bash scripts. They do different things, and are large (70-100 lines each). Thus I have kept them in separate files. But they are all related to a central problem and hence share several constant values in common.
So, for simplicity, I have ten constant variables, some are strings, some are numbers, while two are arrays, all of which need to be available throughout ten different bash scripts. How do I achieve this?
Note that while there is a central main.sh
which can call these individual bash scripts, this won't always be the case. They can also be called directly from the command line (./script1.sh
). Even in that case the variables should be made available to the scripts.
The only way I thought of was that to code in dev/script1.temp.sh
files, and every time I need to run any file, I run a build.sh
bash script that simply replaced (via grep
) all occurrences of a particular constant ($CONSTANT
) throughout the file to produce build/script1.sh
.
bash shell-script
bash shell-script
New contributor
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 14 hours ago
Rui F Ribeiro
39.5k1479132
39.5k1479132
New contributor
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 14 hours ago


Gaurang TandonGaurang Tandon
1034
1034
New contributor
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
You could either set them as environment variables so they are the same across every executed script, or keep them all in a file which you parse during the start of every script. Which solution do you prefer? I'd suggest environment variables.
– Panki
13 hours ago
add a comment |
You could either set them as environment variables so they are the same across every executed script, or keep them all in a file which you parse during the start of every script. Which solution do you prefer? I'd suggest environment variables.
– Panki
13 hours ago
You could either set them as environment variables so they are the same across every executed script, or keep them all in a file which you parse during the start of every script. Which solution do you prefer? I'd suggest environment variables.
– Panki
13 hours ago
You could either set them as environment variables so they are the same across every executed script, or keep them all in a file which you parse during the start of every script. Which solution do you prefer? I'd suggest environment variables.
– Panki
13 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Put all the constants in a file, constants.env
for example. And in all the scripts using any of those constants, put . constants.env
to load them.
For example, constants.env
:
HELLO=world
script.sh
#!/bin/bash
. constants.env
echo $HELLO
Executing the example:
$ ./script.sh
world
New contributor
isalgueiro is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "106"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f495082%2fmaintaining-several-constants-for-several-bash-scripts%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Put all the constants in a file, constants.env
for example. And in all the scripts using any of those constants, put . constants.env
to load them.
For example, constants.env
:
HELLO=world
script.sh
#!/bin/bash
. constants.env
echo $HELLO
Executing the example:
$ ./script.sh
world
New contributor
isalgueiro is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
Put all the constants in a file, constants.env
for example. And in all the scripts using any of those constants, put . constants.env
to load them.
For example, constants.env
:
HELLO=world
script.sh
#!/bin/bash
. constants.env
echo $HELLO
Executing the example:
$ ./script.sh
world
New contributor
isalgueiro is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
Put all the constants in a file, constants.env
for example. And in all the scripts using any of those constants, put . constants.env
to load them.
For example, constants.env
:
HELLO=world
script.sh
#!/bin/bash
. constants.env
echo $HELLO
Executing the example:
$ ./script.sh
world
New contributor
isalgueiro is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Put all the constants in a file, constants.env
for example. And in all the scripts using any of those constants, put . constants.env
to load them.
For example, constants.env
:
HELLO=world
script.sh
#!/bin/bash
. constants.env
echo $HELLO
Executing the example:
$ ./script.sh
world
New contributor
isalgueiro is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
isalgueiro is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 10 hours ago


isalgueiroisalgueiro
25625
25625
New contributor
isalgueiro is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
isalgueiro is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
isalgueiro is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
add a comment |
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Gaurang Tandon is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f495082%2fmaintaining-several-constants-for-several-bash-scripts%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
8yEWugc3lyoq33f,sSGnS1ZYWNJmDRmj6Cz3gfNiKgM HWPazaK 4 zuiwW HqDNyxh1ZVDX6oAUUmVt YHFAzc,Csz
You could either set them as environment variables so they are the same across every executed script, or keep them all in a file which you parse during the start of every script. Which solution do you prefer? I'd suggest environment variables.
– Panki
13 hours ago