title: return values from bash script
body: <p>I want to create a Bash file that returns a value.
  Meaning, in script script_a.bash I have a certain calculation, and script script_b.bash will call it.</p>
  <p>script_a.bash:</p>
  <pre><code>return $1*5
  </code></pre>
  <p>script_b.bash:</p>
  <pre><code>a_value=./script_a.bash 3
  </code></pre>
  <p>when a_value will be 15.</p>
  <p>I read a little bit about that, and saw that there's no &quot;return&quot; in bash, but something like this can be done in functions using &quot;echo&quot;. I don't want to use functions, I need a generic script to use in multiple places.</p>
  <p>Is it possible to return a value from a different script?</p>