How to view comments of a function in bash-CodePudding

To read a function definition, you can use one of the below

typeset -f <func_name>    # OR
declare -f <func_name>    # OR 
type <func_name>

But none of the above commands shows the comments defined inside the function. Is there a command/option which shows comments too along with the definition.

CodePudding user response：

The comments are treated as comments when the function is defined, and are not part of the function itself. But there is a workaround. You can pass arguments to : as a form of comment. eg:

$ foo() { echo foo; : this is a comment; }
$ typeset -f foo
foo () 
{ 
    echo foo;
    : this is a comment
}

CodePudding user response：

Also you could use heredoc. @William answers works for multi line comments as well if surrounded with quotes.

foo() {
    <<'##'
       This is a comment
       more comments
##
echo foo
}

foo() {
    : '
       This is a comment
       more comments
'
echo foo
}