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up vote 5 down vote favorite

I was expecting

excludes="${excludes:-( ${default_excludes[@]} )}"

to be an array if $excludes is empty. Unfortunately the stuff after :- is taken to be a string. Did I miss some syntax contortion, or do I have to use the clunky

if [ -z "${excludes:-}" ]
then
    excludes=( "${default_excludes[@]}" )
fi

?

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2  
Maybe they didn't like the :-(... –  l0b0 May 9 '11 at 14:02

1 Answer 1

up vote 3 down vote accepted

You can construct an array from another array with this syntax:

arr1=( "${arr2[@]}" )

That can be translated into this default-value syntax:

arr1=("${arr1[@]:-${arr2[@]}}")

I've tested some edge cases, like array members with spaces or newlines in them and it seems to handle them correctly.

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