45.14 Finding the Last Command-Line Argument

Do you need to pick up the last parameter $1 , $2 ... from the parameter list [the "command line"-JP  ]? It looks like eval \$$# would do it:

eval
 

$ set foo bar baz


$ eval echo \$$#



baz

except for a small problem with sh argument syntax:

$ set m n o p q r s t u v w x


$ echo $11


m1

$11 means ${1}1 , and not ${11} . Trying ${11} directly gives bad substitution .

The only reliable way to get at the last parameter is to use something like

for i do last="$i"; done

[That for loop assigns each parameter to the shell variable named last ; after the loop ends, $last will have the last parameter. Also, note that you won't need this trick on all sh -like shells. The Korn shell and bash understand ${11} . -JP  ]