[SOLVED] Can't export env vars inside env loop?

Issue

I have a function where I tried to export some env vars:

env -0 | while IFS='=' read -r -d '' env_var_name env_var_value; do
    # Some logic here, then:
    export MY_ENV_VAR=hello
done

However, I just noticed that export and unset do not work inside this loop. What's the best way to perform these exports if I can't do them inside the loop? Store them somewhere and execute them outside the loop?

Solution

The loop isn't the issue. The problem is actually the pipe. When you pipe to a command, a subshell is created and any variables set inside of that subshell will go away when it exits. You can work around this using process substitution:

while IFS='=' read -r -d '' env_var_name env_var_value; do
    # Some logic here, then:
    export MY_ENV_VAR=hello
done < <(env -0)

Answered By - jordanm