How to export an associative array (hash) in bash?

Question

Related, but not a duplicate of: How to define hash tables in Bash?

I can define and use a bash hash, but I am unable to export it, even with the -x flag. For example, the following works to export (and test exportation of) a normal string variable:

aschirma@graphics9-lnx:/$ export animal_cow="moo"
aschirma@graphics9-lnx:/$ bash -c "echo \$animal_cow"
moo
aschirma@graphics9-lnx:/$ 

However, if I try to export a hash:

aschirma@graphics9-lnx:/$ declare -A -x animals
aschirma@graphics9-lnx:/$ animals[duck]="quack"
aschirma@graphics9-lnx:/$ echo ${animals[duck]}
quack
aschirma@graphics9-lnx:/$ bash -c "echo \${animals[duck]}"

aschirma@graphics9-lnx:/$ 

It seems the nested bash shell does not have the hash in its scope. I did verify this also by manually entering the nested bash shell and attempting to use the hash interactively.

Answer 1

There isn't really a good way to encode an array variable into the environment. See http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg01774.html (Chet Ramey is the maintainer of bash)