This is probably a very simple / stupid question, but I am not understanding why I am not getting the expected value when I run this:
FOUND_FRONTDEV=false
echo "$PATHS" |
while IFS= read -r line
do
FOUND_FRONTDEV=true
echo "$FOUND_FRONTDEV"
break
done
echo "$FOUND_FRONTDEV"
It returns "true" then "false". It looks like the variable is local but it should not be. I am really confused why my second echo prints false. Does anyone know please?
The while loop part is executed in a subshell. Hence the change you do to FOUND_FRONTDEV is not visible in the parent shell as the FOUND_FRONTDEV inside the while loop dies once the subshell exits.
Because of your pipe, bash is executing the loop in a subshell, so it can't affect the environment outside it. You can get around this by changing the echo | while ... to while ... done <<<$PATHS
You have to change the while loop so that the echo part is run in a subshell and not the while loop itself. When the variable is changed in a subshell it is only changed there and not changed within the context of the parent shell.
So try:
FOUND_FRONTDEV=false
while IFS= read -r line ; do
FOUND_FRONTDEV=true
echo "$FOUND_FRONTDEV"
break
done < <(echo "$PATHS")
echo "$FOUND_FRONTDEV"
