Is there a way in ksh to get a variable's value when you have been given the name of the variable?
For example:
#!/usr/bin/ksh var_name=$1 #pretend here that the user passed the string "PATH" echo ${$var_name} #echo value of $PATH -- what do I do here? eval `echo '$'$var_name`
echo concatenates a '$' to the variable name inside $var_name, eval evaluates it to show the value.
EDIT: The above isn't quite right. The correct answer is with no backticks.
eval echo '$'$var_name
printenv is not a ksh builtin and may not always be present. For older ksh versions, prior to ksh93, the eval 'expression' method works best.
A powerful method in ksh93 is to use indirection variables with 'nameref' or 'typeset -n'.
Define and verify a nameref variable that refers to $PATH:
$ nameref indirect=PATH $ print $indirect /usr/bin:/usr/sbin See how the nameref variable changes when we change PATH:
$ PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin $ print $indirect /usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin Show ksh version and the alias for nameref:
$ type nameref nameref is an alias for 'typeset -n' $ echo ${.sh.version} Version JM 93t+ 2010-02-02 var_name=$1 #pretend here that the user passed the string "PATH" printenv $var_name 
For one step above your answer (I spent a lot of time trying to find both these answers). The below will allow you to export a dynamic variable and then recall it dynamically:
echo -n "Please provide short name for path:" read PATH_SHORTCUT echo -n "Please provide path:" read PATH eval export \${PATH_SHORTCUT}_PATH="${PATH}" eval echo Path shortcut: ${PATH_SHORTCUT} set to \$"${PATH_SHORTCUT}_PATH". 