Run multi-string bash script from Emacs

Question

I want to run the following bash script, that is stored in an Elisp string, not in a .sh file, then store the shell output in a variable.

#!/bin/bash
IFS=: read -ra _dirs_in_path <<< "$PATH"

for _dir in "${_dirs_in_path[@]}"; do
    for _file in "${_dir}"/*; do
        [[ -x ${_file} && -f ${_file} ]] && printf '%s\n' "${_file##*/}"
    done
done

I couldn't run shell-command on bash scripts, consisting of multiple strings. Emacs and Long Shell Commands didn't help me either, as compile and comint-run also require commands, not bash syntax.

How do i run a complex bash script from Elisp?

Answer 1

Multiline commands are fine to provide as an argument to bash -c if you quote them as you would any other shell argument that might contain shell metacharacters, e.g.:

(setq my-command
      (concat "IFS=: read -ra dirs <<<\"$PATH\"\n"
              "for dir in ${dirs[@]}; do\n"
              " echo got dir \"$dir\"\n"
              "done\n"))

(shell-command (format "bash -c %s" (shell-quote-argument my-command)))