Bash – Variable as command; eval vs bash -c

Yes - the $0 variable gives the name of the script as it was run:

$ cat example.sh
#!/bin/bash
script_name=$( basename ${0#-} ) #- needed if sourced no path
this_script=$( basename ${BASH_SOURCE} )
if [[ ${script_name} = ${this_script} ]] ; then
    echo "running me directly"
else
    echo "sourced from ${script_name}"
fi 

$ cat example2.sh
#!/bin/bash
. ./example.sh

Which runs like:

$ ./example.sh
running me directly
$ ./example2.sh
example.sh sourced from example2.sh

That doesn't cater for being source from an interactive shell, but you get this idea (I hope).

Updated to include BASH_SOURCE - thanks h.j.k

you should handle that stuff in the index evals. and you can indirect through your indirection variable's indices if you make it an array.

a=(abc1 def2 ghi3 jkl4 mno5)
r=('a[c=${#a[@]}]' a\[i] a\[@])
for   i in   0 1 2 3 4 5
do    c=
      printf "<%s>\n" "${!r-${!r[i<c?1:2]}}"
      printf "\n\tindex is $i and count is $c\n\n"
done

<abc1>

    index is 0 and count is 5

<def2>

    index is 1 and count is 5

<ghi3>

    index is 2 and count is 5

<jkl4>

    index is 3 and count is 5

<mno5>

    index is 4 and count is 5

<abc1>
<def2>
<ghi3>
<jkl4>
<mno5>

    index is 5 and count is 5

Because bash's indices are 0-based, the total count of array objects will always work out to one more than than the highest set index, and so:

c=
echo "${a[c=${#a[@]}]-this index is unset}" "$c"

this index is unset 5

...the parameter expands out to the default word if any is provided.

If one is not provided:

c=
${!r}
echo "$c"

5

...there's no harm done.

In the loop I track an $index variable and check if it is at least as large as $count. When it is lesser I expand the $reference var to a[i] because it is a valid index, but when it is equal or greater I expand the $ref to the entire $array.

Here it is in a function:

ref_arr(){
    local    index=-1 count=
    local    ref=(   "$1[ count= \${#$1[@]}  ]"
                     "$1[ index ]"    "$1[ @ ]"
    )  &&    printf  "input array '%s' has '%d' members.\n" \
                     "$1"  "${!ref-${count:?invalid array name: "'$1'"}}"
    while    [ "$((index+=1))" -lt "$count"  ]
    do       printf  "$1[$index]  ==  '%s'\n"  "${!ref[1]}"
    done
}
some_array=(some "dumb
            stuff" 12345\'67890 "" \
          '$(kill my computer)')
ref_arr some_array
ref_arr '$(echo won'\''t work)'

input array 'some_array' has '5' members.
some_array[0]  ==  'some'
some_array[1]  ==  'dumb
                stuff'
some_array[2]  ==  '12345'67890'
some_array[3]  ==  ''
some_array[4]  ==  '$(kill my computer)'
bash: count: invalid array name: '$(echo won't work)'