BASH return to main function

Question

I have a BASH script that calls a function, which calls other functions:

#!/bin/bash
function foo
{
    function bar
    {
        # do something
    }
    bar
}
foo

How can I return from bar directly to the main function? The case is that bar handles user input and if it receives a negative answer, it must return to the main function, otherwise it has to return to foo.

Returning to foo is not a problem with a simple return statement. For the other, I tried this (which actually works):

#!/bin/bash
function foo
{
    function bar
    {
        if [negative] # abstract statement
        then return 1
        else return 0
        fi
    }
    ! bar && return
}
foo

But since I have functions like foo spread across the whole project (bar is defined in a header file), is there a way that only requires modification to bar? The project is ~2k lines long and consists of several files, it would be much easier that way if there's a solution.

Answer 1

There is no nice way (I am aware of) to do that but if you are willing to pay the price...

Instead of putting the code in functions you can put it in files you source. If the functions need arguments then you have to prepare them with set:

set -- arg1 arg2 arg3
source ...

Three files:

1. testscript.sh

   #! /bin/bash
   
   startdir="$PWD"
   
   echo mainscript
   
   while true; do
           echo "begin: helper loop"
           source "${startdir}/func_1"
           echo "end: helper loop"
           break
   done
   
   echo mainscript
   

2. func_1

   echo "begin: func_1"
   source "${startdir}/func_2"
   echo "end: func_1"
   

3. func_2

   echo "begin: func_2"
   echo break from func_2
   break 100
   echo "end: func_2"
   

Result:

> ./testscript.sh
mainscript
begin: helper loop
begin: func_1
begin: func_2
break from func_2
mainscript