Skip to content
Joachim Ansorg edited this page Nov 12, 2021 · 2 revisions

In POSIX sh, += is undefined.

(or "In dash, ... is not supported." when using dash)

Problematic code:

var="Hello "
var+="World"

Correct code:

var="Hello "
var="${var}World"

Rationale:

Using += to concatenate to an existing variable is a ksh/bash extension. For POSIX sh or dash, write out the full expression. Be careful to use braces if the text you append could be confused for a variable (as in the example, to avoid $varWorld being interpreted as ${varWorld})

Exceptions:

None.

Related resources:

  • Help by adding links to BashFAQ, StackOverflow, man pages, POSIX, etc!

ShellCheck

Each individual ShellCheck warning has its own wiki page like SC1000. Use GitHub Wiki's "Pages" feature above to find a specific one, or see Checks.

Clone this wiki locally