Add explanatory text for the subcommand example

jzinn 2018-06-04 21:37:31 -07:00
parent 44839cb533
commit 3dea969a09

@ -24,25 +24,30 @@ If the intention is to provide each array element as a separate argument, put th
### Exceptions
Concatenating a string with an array can be used to make a command line interface with subcommands.
To implement the subcommand interface, first pick a prefix like `subcommand_` below for the function names that implement the subcommands. Then protect the parsing of the subcommands by listing them in the patterns of a case statement. In the body of the case statement, a concatenation of the prefix with `"$@"` will invoke the subcommand function and pass the rest of the parameters to the function.
For example:
```sh
command_foo() {
subcommand_foo() {
echo "In foo"
echo "\$1 == $1 == aaa"
echo "\$2 == $2 == bbb"
}
command_bar() {
subcommand_bar() {
echo "In bar"
}
command_baz() {
subcommand_baz() {
echo "In baz"
}
main() {
case "$1" in
foo | bar | baz )
command_"$@"
subcommand_"$@"
;;
* )
printf "Error: %s\n" "Unrecognized command"
@ -52,3 +57,5 @@ main() {
main foo aaa bbb
```
In the above example, inside the `main` function, the value of `"$@"` is `( foo aaa bbb ccc )`. The value of `subcommand_"$@"` after expanding is `( subcommand_foo aaa bbb ccc )`, which the shell interprets as a call to the `subcommand_foo` function.