Shell variable is available on command line but not in script

Question

In the bash command line, I set a variable myPath=/home/user/dir . I created a script in which I put echo $myPath but it doesnt seem to work. It echoes nothing. If I write echo $myPath in the command line, it works, but not in the script.

What can I do to access the myPath variable in the script?

Answer 1

how did you assign the variable? it should have been:

$ export myPath="/home/user/dir"

then inside a shell program like:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
echo $myPath

you'll get the desired results.

Answer 2

Export the variable:

export myPath=/home/user/dir

This instructs the shell to make the variable available in external processes and scripts. If you don't export the variable, it will be considered local to the current shell.

To see a list of currently exported variables, use env. This can also be used to verify that a variable is correctly defined and exported:

$ env | grep myPath
myPath=/home/user/dir