Import a local bash file into another bash file

Question

I have var.sh

name="John"
age="29"

I also have main.sh

eval "var.sh"
echo "My name is $name"

When I run, I kept getting

⚡️  Desktop  bash main.sh 
main.sh: line 1: var.sh: command not found
My name is

What is the best practice to import a local bash file into another bash file ?

Is there way that will work on Mac OS X, Linux and Windows ?

codeforester · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-22T01:26:44.773

eval is not meant for importing a script into another. You need the source builtin:

source var.sh

which is synonymous to:

. var.sh

eval is throwing the error for one or both of these reasons:

var.sh is not executable
var.sh is executable but current directory is not in the PATH

Even if we address both of these issues, eval will spawn a shell to run var.sh which means all the variables set inside var.sh are forgotten once eval finishes and that's not what you want.

Output of help source:

source: source filename [arguments]

Execute commands from a file in the current shell.

Read and execute commands from FILENAME in the current shell.  The
entries in $PATH are used to find the directory containing FILENAME.
If any ARGUMENTS are supplied, they become the positional parameters
when FILENAME is executed.

Exit Status:
Returns the status of the last command executed in FILENAME; fails if
FILENAME cannot be read.

Import a local bash file into another bash file

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