Bash shift quirks.

README.md

Bash shift quirks

When using the shift built-in, have noted this interesting behavior which I have been unable to find documentation for.

Update: the answer was right in front of me, if shift is called with a value greater than arguments available in $1 - $x then it will return with a non zero status - hence the script will halt (since I'm using set -e)!

Using the script test.sh, executed using arguments:

./test.sh apple orange banana
apple
orange
banana

banana


red
blue

As expected:

• Three arguments echoed.
• Shift two away.
• One remains as $1 (banana).

And then without arguments:

./test.sh

# no output

Arguments $1 - $3 don't exist, so no output or shift but $variable1 and $variable2 are now broken!?!

Why? I'm not sure. Appreciate any comments!

But what this does show, it's safer to check the number of positional arguments available before calling shift e.g.:

[[ $# -ge 2 ]] && shift 2

Reference

• http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-Guide/html/sect_09_07.html
• https://www.shellscript.sh/tips/shift/
• https://www.computerhope.com/unix/bash/shift.htm

test.sh

#!/bin/bash -e

echo "$1"
echo "$2"
echo "$3"
echo

shift 2

variable1="red"
variable2="blue"

echo "$1"
echo "$2"
echo "$3"

echo "$variable1"
echo "$variable2"

The reason for that behaviour ist the -e option in #!/bin/bash -e
It's like calling set -e which has the effect that a script exits immediately if any command exits with a non-zero status.
And if you shift more than the arguments / parameter count then the shift-command exits with a non-zero status.
That prevents executing any further commands after this shift-call.
If you omit the -e option at the beginning the following commands (echos) will get executed

Of course @bambam2174 - and to be honest, that answer was right in front of me!!! 🤦‍♂️

See here http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-Guide/html/sect_09_07.html (which I linked to as well!).

The return status is zero unless N is greater than $# or less than zero; otherwise it is non-zero.

That was my own silly fault 🤕 - thanks for setting me right!