change expansion for key-value pair compound assignment to associative arrays to split all words before identifying keys and values; controlled by a new shopt option: kvpair_split, enabled by default; new `loadassoc' loadable builtin to load an associative array from a set of key-value arguments

examples/loadables/Makefile.in

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #
 # Simple makefile for the sample loadable builtins
 #
-# Copyright (C) 1996-2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+# Copyright (C) 1996-2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 
 #   This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 #   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -103,7 +103,8 @@ INC = -I. -I.. -I$(topdir) -I$(topdir)/lib -I$(topdir)/builtins -I${srcdir} \
 ALLPROG = print truefalse sleep finfo logname basename dirname fdflags \
 	  tty pathchk tee head mkdir rmdir mkfifo mktemp printenv id whoami \
 	  uname sync push ln unlink realpath strftime mypid setpgid seq rm \
-	  accept csv dsv cut stat getconf kv strptime chmod fltexpr jobid rev
+	  accept csv dsv cut stat getconf kv strptime chmod fltexpr jobid rev \
+	  loadassoc
 OTHERPROG = necho hello cat pushd asort
 
 SUBDIRS = perl
@@ -229,6 +230,9 @@ dsv:	dsv.o
 kv:	kv.o
 	$(SHOBJ_LD) $(SHOBJ_LDFLAGS) $(SHOBJ_XLDFLAGS) -o $@ kv.o $(SHOBJ_LIBS)
 
+loadassoc:	loadassoc.o
+	$(SHOBJ_LD) $(SHOBJ_LDFLAGS) $(SHOBJ_XLDFLAGS) -o $@ loadassoc.o $(SHOBJ_LIBS)
+
 cut:	cut.o
 	$(SHOBJ_LD) $(SHOBJ_LDFLAGS) $(SHOBJ_XLDFLAGS) -o $@ cut.o $(SHOBJ_LIBS)
 
@@ -327,7 +331,8 @@ OBJS = print.o truefalse.o accept.o sleep.o finfo.o getconf.o logname.o \
        basename.o dirname.o tty.o pathchk.o tee.o head.o rmdir.o necho.o \
        hello.o cat.o csv.o dsv.o kv.o cut.o printenv.o id.o whoami.o uname.o \
        sync.o push.o mkdir.o mktemp.o realpath.o strftime.o setpgid.o stat.o \
-       fdflags.o seq.o asort.o strptime.o chmod.o fltexpr.o jobid.o rev.o
+       fdflags.o seq.o asort.o strptime.o chmod.o fltexpr.o jobid.o rev.o \
+       loadassoc.o
 
 ${OBJS}:	${BUILD_DIR}/config.h
 
@@ -352,6 +357,7 @@ chmod.o: chmod.c
 csv.o: csv.c
 dsv.o: dsv.c
 kv.o: kv.c
+loadassoc.o: loadassoc.c
 cut.o: cut.c
 printenv.o: printenv.c
 id.o: id.c

examples/loadables/loadassoc.c

@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+/* loadassoc - treat the arguments as key-value pairs and assign them
+ 	       sequentially to the associative array supplied as an
+ 	       argument to the -a option. Very similar to the `kv' builtin. */
+
+/*
+   This allows you to copy an existing associative array `assoc' like:
+	loadassoc -A copy "${assoc[@]@k}"
+*/
+
+/*
+   Copyright (C) 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+   This file is part of GNU Bash.
+   Bash is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+   the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+   (at your option) any later version.
+
+   Bash is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+   GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+   along with Bash.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+*/
+
+#include <config.h>
+
+#if defined (HAVE_UNISTD_H)
+#  include <unistd.h>
+#endif
+#include "bashansi.h"
+#include <stdio.h>
+
+#include "loadables.h"
+
+#define LOADASSOC_ARRAY_DEFAULT	"ASSOC"
+
+static int
+kvlist (SHELL_VAR *var, WORD_LIST *list)
+{
+  WORD_LIST *k, *v;
+  char *key, *val;
+  int r;
+
+  r = 0;
+  for (k = list; k; k = v->next)
+    {
+      v = k->next;
+
+      key = savestring (k->word->word);
+      if (key == 0 || *key == '\0')
+	{
+	  err_badarraysub (k->word->word);
+	  free (key);
+          continue;
+	}
+
+      val = v ? savestring (v->word->word) : 0;
+      if (val == 0)
+	{
+	  val = (char *)xmalloc (1);
+	  val[0] = '\0';
+	}
+
+      r += bind_assoc_variable (var, name_cell (var), key, val, 0) != 0;
+
+      free (val);
+
+      if (v == 0)
+	break;
+    }
+
+  return r;
+}
+
+int
+loadassoc_builtin (WORD_LIST *list)
+{
+#if defined (ARRAY_VARS)
+  int opt, rval, unset;
+  char *array_name;
+  SHELL_VAR *v;
+
+  array_name = 0;
+  rval = EXECUTION_SUCCESS;
+  unset = 1;
+
+  reset_internal_getopt ();
+  while ((opt = internal_getopt (list, "A:a")) != -1)
+    {
+      switch (opt)
+	{
+	case 'A':
+	  array_name = list_optarg;
+	  break;
+	case 'a':
+	  unset = 0;
+	  break;
+	CASE_HELPOPT;
+	default:
+	  builtin_usage ();
+	  return (EX_USAGE);
+	}
+    }
+  list = loptend;
+
+  if (array_name == 0)
+    array_name = LOADASSOC_ARRAY_DEFAULT;
+
+  if (valid_identifier (array_name) == 0)
+    {
+      sh_invalidid (array_name);
+      return (EXECUTION_FAILURE);
+    }
+
+  v = find_or_make_array_variable (array_name, 3);
+  if (v == 0 || readonly_p (v) || noassign_p (v))
+    {
+      if (v && readonly_p (v))
+	err_readonly (array_name);
+      return (EXECUTION_FAILURE);
+    }
+  else if (assoc_p (v) == 0)
+    {
+      builtin_error ("%s: not an associative array", array_name);
+      return (EXECUTION_FAILURE);
+    }
+  if (invisible_p (v))
+    VUNSETATTR (v, att_invisible);
+
+  if (unset)
+    assoc_flush (assoc_cell (v));
+
+  rval = list ? kvlist (v, list) : 1;	/* no args is ok */
+
+  return (rval > 0 ? EXECUTION_SUCCESS : EXECUTION_FAILURE);
+#else
+  builtin_error ("arrays not available");
+  return (EXECUTION_FAILURE);
+#endif
+}
+
+char *loadassoc_doc[] = {
+	"Assign arguments as keys and values of an associative array.",
+	"",
+	"Take arguments and assign them as keys and corresponding values to",
+	"an associative array. The array name is supplied as the argument to",
+	"the -A option. ASSOC is the default associative array name.",
+	"",
+	"If the -a option is supplied, the values are added to the existing",
+	"value of the array; if it is not supplied, the array is unset before",
+	"assigning any values.",
+	"",
+	"The return status is true if the assignment is performed successfully;",
+	"false if an error occurs or if the array variable is invalid or",
+	"readonly.",
+	
+	(char *)NULL
+};
+
+struct builtin loadassoc_struct = {
+	"loadassoc",		/* builtin name */
+	loadassoc_builtin,	/* function implementing the builtin */
+	BUILTIN_ENABLED,	/* initial flags for builtin */
+	loadassoc_doc,		/* array of long documentation strings. */
+	"loadassoc [-A aname] [-a] key value ...",	/* usage synopsis; becomes short_doc */
+	0			/* reserved for internal use */
+};