[SOLVED] What are the rules for valid identifiers (e.g. functions, vars, etc) in Bash?

Issue

What are the syntax rules for identifiers, especially function and variable names, in Bash?

I wrote a Bash script and tested it on various versions of Bash on Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat 5 and 6, and even an old Solaris 8 box. The script ran well, so it shipped.

Yet when a user tried it on SUSE machines, it gave a "not a valid identifier" error. Fortunately, my guess that there was an invalid character in the function name was right. The hyphens were messing it up.

The fact that a script that was at least somewhat tested would have completely different behaviour on another Bash or distro was disconcerting. How can I avoid this?

Solution

From the manual:

   Shell Function Definitions
       ...
       name () compound-command [redirection]
       function name [()] compound-command [redirection]

name is defined elsewhere:

       name   A  word  consisting  only  of alphanumeric characters and under‐
              scores, and beginning with an alphabetic character or an  under‐
              score.  Also referred to as an identifier.

So hyphens are not valid. And yet, on my system, they do work...

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.2.25(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

Answered By - Thomas