Bashscripts.org

Title is BS i know, i tried my best to sum it up but, anyway, the problem is this:


This script opens a zenity pulsating bar during the checksum and kills it should the user click "Cancel". Problem is $summ echoes his initialization value and not the output of that function. I'm definitely wasting too much time on this single issue!

Sister thread: http://bashscripts.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=989&sid=679115af6e8ed55692bb2c7de7a2bb13

The parentheses create a subshell. There is a different scoping for the variables in the subshell than in the parent shell. Thus, the $summ in the subshell is not the same as the one from the main shell! It would be nice if bash warned you about this, but it doesn't do that kind of analysis.

This is why, in the other thread, I recommended doing things in a slightly awkward way. Combining pipes, subshells, and return values is tricky. It's not going to be easy to communicate between the subshell and the main shell, especially if you are piping to zenity -- that was the reason for touching the file.

So... what's the tricky way?
I don't really like the idea of writing to file just for a short string, i think i'll keep that as the last resort.

Keep it simple, my friend. Touching a file costs nothing compared to md5summing a large file or even the GUI stuff.

Your other options include, as far as I can tell:
1. An even more awkward chain of calls
2. Modifying the Zenity source (it's in C)
3. Some other magic

Ok then, will do!