Return an array through a nameref.
Bash Scripts: Assign through a nameref to preserve array element boundaries.
set -euo pipefail
fill() { local -n output=$1; output=(one "two words"); }
result=()
fill result
printf "%s\n" "${result[@]}"Expected output EXAMPLE
one two words
Details
Requires Bash 4 or later. Save as snippet.sh and run bash snippet.sh in an empty working directory. Assign through a nameref to preserve array element boundaries.
Requires Bash 4.3 or later. The destination name must not collide with the local nameref.
Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · GNU bash, version 5.2.21(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) · bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; coreutils 9.4-3ubuntu6.3
Test inputs, results and environment
The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Networking disabled. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.
- Architecture / host kernel
- x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
- Snippet identity / locale
- uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
- Interpreter invocation
bash -euo pipefail -c <published code>- Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3- Code SHA-256
65757e55c2bb0bb778abc2d6a321d442d865563dae6aed500d03ebc4aceaf938- Dependencies
- bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; coreutils 9.4-3ubuntu6.3
Test input setup
These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.
# No input files required.
Observed standard output
one two words
Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.