On: Pure Bash Bible – A collection of pure bash alternatives to external processes

[chasil]

In a POSIX shell, I would do it like this:

  trim_string () (
  x=${1%[:space:]}
  return ${x#[:space:]}
  )

Note the use of a subshell ( instead of command grouping { because POSIX shells do not have local function variables.

At least, I think that would work.

On Windows, forking is expensive, so I wouldn't do it this way.