On 22/10/2023 23:13, Greg Wooledge wrote:
2) All-caps variable name IFL. All-caps variable names are reserved, by
convention, for environment variables (e.g. PATH) and special shell
variables (e.g. IFS).
While I don't disagree with the suggestion of using lower case for variables (and have even started doing so myself), it seems that this "convention" is far from universal.
I did a quick search on the bash manual page and found no suggestion on how to name user variables, or that uppercase names are reserved (but it was a very quick search - I might have skipped something).
Even an internet search shows that people seem to be divided: this style guide[0], for example, suggests lower case variable names (for the same reason), but suggests that if the variable is actually a constant, it should be upper case. (This seems to be influenced by Java conventions.)
[0] https://google.github.io/styleguide/shellguide.html#s7-naming-conventions
This guy[1] even says that all variables should be uppercase. [1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bash-scripting-conventions-engin-polatIt's certainly very common (even if unfortunate) to use all uppercase variables, as you certainly know.
So while I agree that it's a good idea to use lowercase variable names, the way you put it seems a bit too strong. I'd call it a preference, or even a matter of style, but convention to me implies something that's more widely agreed upon or more widespread, which it's not (unfortunately).
-- Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness. -- Beckett Eduardo M KALINOWSKI eduardo@kalinowski.com.br