Expanding variables in ReturnsZero function

[paguerlais]

Hi all,

I want to give a variable with a default value if it's not already defined.
The only way I found to do that was to use a ReturnsZero function to test
the current value of the variable, and to initialize it it's null :
<cut>
control:
      host1::
            my_var = ( value_for_host1 )
      host2::
            my_var = ( value_for_host2 )

groups:
      my_var_is_already_valued = ( ReturnsZero(/bin/test -n "$(my_var)") )

control:
      !my_var_is_already_valued::
            my_var = ( some_default_value )
</cut>

It doesn't work because cfengine doesn't expand variables used in a command
for an internal function (I've spent some time reading functions.c,
popen.c, misc.c and varstring.c). Is this done in purpose (and the next
question is why), or was this feature simply forgot ? I'd like that feature
not only for command arguments, but also for the command itself (you define
a variable named TEST and valued with /bin/test, and you call ReturnsZero
($(TEST) ... ))

Next, is there a better way to test if a variable has a value ?

Thanks
Patrice





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