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Semicolon causes ERROR in Parameter Expansion #267
Description
Hi!
First of all, thank you all for your amazing work and precious time. ❤️
When using a semicolon ; in a parameter expansion, it causes a parsing ERROR, although it should not:
From playground :
Example 1
In:
${a:+$a;}
Out:
program [0, 0] - [1, 0]
ERROR [0, 0] - [0, 9]
variable_name [0, 2] - [0, 3]
simple_expansion [0, 5] - [0, 7]
variable_name [0, 6] - [0, 7]
Example 2
In (note the space after ;:
${a:+$a; }
Out:
program [0, 0] - [1, 0]
command [0, 0] - [0, 10]
name: command_name [0, 0] - [0, 10]
expansion [0, 0] - [0, 10]
variable_name [0, 2] - [0, 3]
concatenation [0, 5] - [0, 9]
simple_expansion [0, 5] - [0, 7]
variable_name [0, 6] - [0, 7]
ERROR [0, 7] - [0, 8]
word [0, 8] - [0, 9]
The error occurs also when ; is not the last character in the default word.
When ; is a prefix or suffix pattern, it seems to be fine.
Reacted by sjmik
Activity
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sjmik commentedon Oct 22, 2026
+1 encountered this today in zed