Before considering to execute a command substitution in the same process,
check if any of the expansions may have a side effect; if so, execute it in
a new process just like happens if it is not a single simple command.
Although the check happens at run time, it is a static check that does not
depend on current state. It is triggered by:
- expanding $! (which may cause the job to be remembered)
- ${var=value} default value assignment
- assignment operators in arithmetic
- parameter substitutions in arithmetic except ${#param}, $$, $# and $?
- command substitutions in arithmetic
This means that $((v+1)) does not prevent optimized command substitution,
whereas $(($v+1)) does, because $v might expand to something containing
assignment operators.
Scripts should not depend on these exact details for correctness. It is also
imaginable to have the shell fork if and when a side effect is encountered
or to create a new temporary namespace for variables.
Due to the $! change, the construct $(jobs $!) no longer works. The value of
$! should be stored in a variable outside command substitution first.