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bashfunctionglobal-variables

How to access a Bash variable from another function?

I have a Bash function that contains a variable that I need to access from another function. How do I do this?

Here is an example:

#!/bin/bash 

function run_query() {
    sleep 5
    local -g DATA=$(curl "http://api.dictionary.words/?definition=program")
}

function display_data() {
    printf "%s\n" "$DATA"
}

run_query &
display_data
Solution

  • The first function runs every 5 seconds and the second function runs every second because I did not want to query the API every second.

    Then, you can query every 5 seconds

    i=0
while :
do
    ((i++ % 5 == 0)) && data=$(curl "http://api.dictionary.words/?definition=program")
    printf '%s\n' "$data"
    sleep 1
done