Behavior of environmental variables depending on name

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JosDuchIt
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Behavior of environmental variables depending on name

Post by JosDuchIt »

environmental variables are said to be used in scripts when preceded with a $ sign
If the name of the variable contains a "." dot the results are not as expected.
Is there a reason or could this be corrected?

Code: Select all

6.Env:> setenv y "value"
6.Env:> getenv y
value
6.Env:> echo $y
value
6.Env:> type y
value6.Env:>
6.Env> setenv .y "value"
6.Env:> getenv .y
value
6.Env:> echo $.y
$.y  ///???
6.Env:> type .y
value6.Env:> 
6.Env:> setenv y.1 "value"
6.Env:> getenv y.1
value
6.Env:> echo $y.1
value.1 /// ?????
6.Env:> type y.1
value6.Env:> 
6.Env:> setenv .y.1 "value"
6.Env:> getenv .y.1
value
6.Env:> echo $.y.1
$.y.1 ///???
6.Env:> type .y.1
value6.Env:>
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salass00
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Re: Behavior of environmental variables depending on name

Post by salass00 »

For weird variable names like that or other situations were AmigaDOS has trouble identifying where the variable name starts and ends you should use curly braces:

Code: Select all

8.RAM Disk:> setenv .y. "Hello World"
8.RAM Disk:> echo ${.y.}
Hello World
8.RAM Disk:>
JosDuchIt
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Re: Behavior of environmental variables depending on name

Post by JosDuchIt »

Thanks a lot.

Is this documented somewhere?
chris
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Re: Behavior of environmental variables depending on name

Post by chris »

You can also start your script with something like:
.dot !

"." is a special character in AmigaDOS scripts.
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Daedalus
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Re: Behavior of environmental variables depending on name

Post by Daedalus »

JosDuchIt wrote:Is this documented somewhere?
I don't think it's specifically documented, but in general it's always been the case that special characters have to be treated carefully in AmigaDOS, especially in scripts. The documentation here talks about substitution of special characters in scripts, specifically brackets and dots.
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