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Can anyone explain why the semi-colon is necessary in order for the LANG to be seen as updated by bash?

Doesn't work:

> LANG=Ja_JP bash -c "echo $LANG"


> LANG=Ja_JP ; bash -c "echo $LANG"

I'm working with both bash 4.1.10 on linux and the same version under cygwin

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2 Answers

up vote 18 down vote accepted

Parameter and other types of expansions are performed when the command is read, before it is executed.

The first version, LANG=Ja_JP bash -c "echo $LANG", is a single command. After it is parsed as such, $LANG is expanded to en_US before anything is executed. Once bash is finished processing the input, it forks a process, adds LANG=Ja_JP to the environment as expected, and then executes bash -c echo en_US.

You can prevent expansion with single quotes, i.e. LANG=Ja_JP bash -c 'echo $LANG' outputs Ja_JP.

Note that when you have a variable assignment as part of a command, the assignment only affects the environment of that command and not that of your shell.

The second version, LANG=Ja_JP; bash -c "echo $LANG" is actually two separate commands executed in sequence. The first is a simple variable assignment without a command, so it affects your current shell.

Thus, your two snippets are fundamentally different despite the superficial distinction of a single ;.

Completely off-topic, but might I recommend appending a .UTF-8 when setting LANG. There's no good reason nowadays not to be using Unicode in the 21st century.

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Great answer - thanks! Regarding the addition of UTF-8. I'm trying to test the locale handling of an application which needs to work on several platforms some of which are quite old. Between differences like this one (which thankfully you've explained) and differences on linux and cygwin I'm about to throw myself under a bus! –  Richard Corden Apr 18 '12 at 14:36
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VAR=value; somecommand is equivalent to


These are unrelated commands executed one after the other. The first command assigns a value to the shell variable VAR. Unless VAR is already an environment variable, it is not exported to the environment, it remains internal to the shell. A statement export VAR would export VAR to the environment.

VAR=value somecommand is a different syntax. The assignment VAR=value is to the environment, but this assignment is only made in the execution environment of somecommand, not for the subsequent execution of the shell.

By way of example:

# Assume neither VAR1 nor VAR2 is in the environment
echo $VAR1                        # displays "value"
env | grep '^VAR1='               # displays nothing
VAR2=value env | grep '^VAR2='    # displays "VAR2=value"
echo $VAR2                        # displays nothing
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I hadn't really thought about the difference between a shell vs environment variable. I'll have to go do some research. Thanks for the answer. –  Richard Corden Apr 26 '12 at 17:02
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