How to ‘source’ a shell script using bash from zsh

bashoh-my-zshzsh

I am using zsh and like it very much, but work a lot with Android source which has compilation scripts that require bash to be evaluated correctly. These scripts need to be sourced prior to compilation and define environment variables and shell functions that are used during compilation.

Zsh cannot source these files, and if I try to issue emulate bash my shell becomes non-functionnal with plenty of these error every time I hit space (I am using oh-my-zsh, maybe that is a cause?):

url-quote-magic:24: bad pattern: ( ):/(|/localhost)/*

Is there a way for me not to switch to bash to evaluate these files, or to invoke a bash instance and import the new environments variables/functions it defined during sourcing into my zsh session? Or I am doomed to switch to bash every time I need to work on Android?

EDIT: found an answer to my own question. Sourcing a file using another shell does not seem to be possible, but in the case of Android macro files failing, this page brought a fix:

http://nilvec.com/building-cyanogen-from-source/

Basically, simply setting unsetopt nomatch will ask zsh to stop complaining about unmatched wildcards, which is enough to bring the scripts to completion. There will still be one error remaining, about the use of the complete bash internal command to add completion capabilities to one Android macro, but it is absolutely not critical here.

Best Answer

You could put your compilation commandline in a bash script, which sources the compilation scripts bevor executing the compilation command.

Something like

    #!/bin/bash
    . /path/to/environmentscript
    . /path/to/morefunctionsscript

    compile_command

Then instead of invoking compile_command by hand, you just invoke your new bash script.

Related Solutions

Linux – change default shell from zsh to bash

Make sure /usr/bin/chsh has execute permissions by running sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/chsh.

You should be able to run chsh using your own account. Otherwise you'd be setting root's shell. Try the following:

chsh -s $( which bash )

Alias scoping in bash functions

An alternative solution is to paste those commands into a text file instead of a function block. Something like:

## This is needed to make the sourced aliases available
## within the script.
shopt -s expand_aliases

source /some/environment/setup/script.sh
aliasToSetupSomeSoftwareVersion
anotherAliasForOtherSoftware
source /maybe/theres/another/script.sh
runSomeOtherSetup

Save that as setup1.sh wherever you like. The trick is to then source this file, not execute it:

$ source setup1.sh

That will run the aliases that are in the script and also make them available to your current shell.

You can further simplify the process by adding this to your .bashrc:

alias setupLotsOfThings="source setup1.sh"

Now you can simply run setupLotsOfThings and get the behavior you wanted from the function.

Explanation

There are two issues here. First, aliases are not available to the function they are declared in but only once that function has exited and second that aliases are not available within scripts. Both are explained in the same section of man bash:

Aliases are not expanded when the shell is not interactive, unless the expand_aliases shell option is set using shopt (see the description of shopt under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

The rules concerning the definition and use of aliases are somewhat confusing. Bash always reads at least one complete line of input before executing any of the commands on that line. Aliases are expanded when a command is read, not when it is executed. Therefore, an alias definition appearing on the same line as another command does not take effect until the next line of input is read. The commands following the alias definition on that line are not affected by the new alias. This behavior is also an issue when functions are executed. Aliases are expanded when a function definition is read, not when the function is executed, because a function definition is itself a compound command. As a consequence, aliases defined in a function are not
available until after that function is executed. To be safe, always put alias definitions on a separate line, and do not use alias in com‐ pound commands.

Then, there is the difference between executing and sourcing a file. Basically, running a script makes it run in a separate shell while sourcing it makes it run in the current shell. So, sourcing setup.sh makes the aliases available to the parent shell while executing it as a script would not.

Best Answer

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Linux – change default shell from zsh to bash

Alias scoping in bash functions

Explanation

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