Differences between two .bashrc commands

Question

I have this line of code :

[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(SHELL=/bin/sh lesspipe)"

Is there a difference between

and more simply

(What is the difference between using export and not using it by the way?)

It's worth pointing out that SHELL=/bin/sh lesspipe isn't SHELL being set to /bin/sh lesspipe; it's running lesspipe with the environment variable SHELL set to /bin/sh for that command only. If that wasn't clear. — Cairnarvon
– Cairnarvon, Commented May 8, 2013 at 3:59

Carl Norum · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-08 03:57:27Z

1

Yes, there's a difference.

The second example just runs lesspipe with the SHELL variable set to /bin/sh in its environment.

The first example does the same, but takes the output and runs that as a command in your current shell.

answered May 8, 2013 at 3:57

Carl Norum

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