Question

I need to pass a list to a KornShell (ksh) function, something like this:

#!/bin/ksh

print_list ()
{
        Files=$1

        for file in $(Files);do
                echo $file
        done
}

LogFiles=`find . -type f -name "*.log"`

print_list $LogFiles

When I try to run only first element in the list gets printed. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

If you happen to run ksh93, not ksh88, you can use that syntax which handle embedded spaces in file/directory names:

#!/bin/ksh

function print_list
{
  eval "a=( \"\${$1[@]}\" )"
  for file in "${a[@]}";do
    echo $file
  done
}

IFS=$'\n' LogFiles=( $(find . -type f -name "*.log") )
print_list LogFiles

and here is a ksh88 way, still using an array and handling spaces:

#!/bin/ksh

function print_list
{
  i=1
  while [ $i -lt $2 ]
  do
    file=$(eval echo \${$1[$i]})
    echo file=$file
    i=$((i+1))
  done
}

(
  IFS="
  "
  i=1
  find . -type f -name "*.log" |
  while read l
  do
    LogFiles[$i]=$l
    i=$((i+1))
  done
  print_list LogFiles $i
)