How to run a command block in the main shell? [duplicate]

Question

I try to run a series of commands as a whole inside the main shell, but the way I was teached only works inside the subshell:

🌐 echo $BASHPID
18884
🌐 (echo "hello $BASHPID";sleep 5;echo "hello again $BASHPID")
hello 22268
hello again 22268

I also tried:

. (echo "hello $BASHPID";sleep 5;echo "hello again $BASHPID")
source (echo "hello $BASHPID";sleep 5;echo "hello again $BASHPID")

to use the source command, because I learned it forces the script to run inside the main shell.

I guess, it would work, if I put the commands inside a file and run it with the source command, but I would like to know if there is a way beyound a script file.

Answer 1

Depends what you mean by as a whole.

If you only mean send several commands to the shell, and make sure the shell doesn't start running them until you've entered them all, then you can just do:

cmd1; cmd2

Or

cmd1Ctrl+VCtrl+Jcmd2

(or enable bracketed-paste (bind 'set enable-bracketed-paste on') and paste the commands from a terminal that supports bracketed paste).

Or:

{
cmd1
cmd2
}

To have them on several lines.

If you want to group them so they share the same stdin or stdout for instance, you could use:

{ cmd1; cmd2; } < in > out

Or

eval 'cmd1; cmd2' < in > out

If you want them to run with their own variable and option scope, as bash doesn't have the equivalent of zsh anonymous functions, you'd need to define a temporary function:

f() { local var; var=foo; bar;}; f

Answer 2

Instead of ( something ), which launches something in a subshell, use { something ; }, which launches something in the current shell

You need spaces after the {, and should also have a ; (or a newline) before the }.

Ex:

$ { echo "hello $BASHPID";sleep 5;echo "hello again $BASHPID" ; }
hello 3536
hello again 3536

Please note however that if you launch some complex commands (or piped commands), those will be in a subshell most of the time anyway.

And the "portable" way to get your current shell's pid is $$.

So I'd instead write your test as:

{ echo "hello $$"; sleep 5 ; echo "hello again $$" ; }

(the sleep is not really useful anyway here)