Re: keeping something in memory after the end of script

[NetWallah]

If the "Next run" is started from the same shell, or a child of that shell, you could use "export"ed environment variables to persist data, as suggested here.

[fullermd]

Not really (at least, not without some sort of nutso magic trick). The shell would be the parent process of your script; you can't mess with your parent's environment.

[NetWallah]

Point taken (++), but the magic is not too achene:

~$ chksum=$(perl -e'print qq|Set by perl|'); echo BASH says chksum is 
+$chksum
BASH says chksum is Set by perl