On Fri, 27 Oct 2023 15:34:16 +0100 Kerin Millar <k...@plushkava.net> wrote:
<snip> > Keep in mind that the Shell Command Language specification requires that > "Default Value" parameter expansion be implemented in the way that it is, and > that there are countless scripts that depend on the status quo. However, the > Shell Command Language also doesn't suffer from this ambiguity because it > doesn't specify any means of performing "Substring Expansion" to begin with > (it's a bash extension). Since there is no way for bash to otherwise know > that "-10:1" wasn't intended as the word in ${parameter:-word}, you'll have > to choose a preferred workaround for negative offsets and live with it, as > irksome as it may be. Of course, I meant to write "10:1" there, not "-10:1". -- Kerin Millar