[CLUE-Tech] Shee/export thing

[Jed S. Baer]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2001 09:40:39 -0700
Grant Johnson <grant at amadensor.com> wrote:

> After
> testit
> grant at c70051-a:~/test > echo $bogus
> testit
> grant at c70051-a:~/test >
> 
> 
> When I just ran it and exported the env var, it didn't do anything to my
> current shell, but when I did a "dot-space" before it, it worked.  WTH? 
>  I don't get why.  I just swiped this off an example.  I don't know why 
> it is this way.

It's because when you don't use the ". space" notation, it runs in a
sub-shell. That notation is called "sourceing" the script, BTW.

env vars set in sub-shell (i.e. child process) don't get set in the
current process. However, exporting a variable causes it to be propogated
"down" to subshells. Propogation doesn't work "up" though.

-- 
  If R is the set of all sets which don't contain themselves,
  does R contain itself?