How to pass an array argument to the Bash script

Bash arrays are not "first class values" -- you can't pass them around like one "thing".

Assuming test.sh is a bash script, I would do

#!/bin/basharg1=$1; shiftarray=( "$@" )last_idx=$(( ${#array[@]} - 1 ))arg2=${array[$last_idx]}unset array[$last_idx]echo "arg1=$arg1"echo "arg2=$arg2"echo "array contains:"printf "%s\n" "${array[@]}"

And invoke it like

test.sh argument1 "${array[@]}" argument2

Have your script arrArg.sh like this:

#!/bin/basharg1="$1"arg2=("${!2}")arg3="$3"arg4=("${!4}")echo "arg1=$arg1"echo "arg2 array=${arg2[@]}"echo "arg2 #elem=${#arg2[@]}"echo "arg3=$arg3"echo "arg4 array=${arg4[@]}"echo "arg4 #elem=${#arg4[@]}"

Now setup your arrays like this in a shell:

arr=(ab 'x y' 123)arr2=(a1 'a a' bb cc 'it is one')

And pass arguments like this:

. ./arrArg.sh "foo" "arr[@]" "bar" "arr2[@]"

Above script will print:

arg1=fooarg2 array=ab x y 123arg2 #elem=3arg3=bararg4 array=a1 a a bb cc it is onearg4 #elem=5

Note: It might appear weird that I am executing script using . ./script syntax. Note that this is for executing commands of the script in the current shell environment.

Q. Why current shell environment and why not a sub shell?
A. Because bash doesn't export array variables to child processes as documented here by bash author himself

You can write your array to a file, then source the file in your script.e.g.:

array.sh

array=(a b c)

test.sh

source $2...

Run the test.sh script:

./test.sh argument1 array.sh argument3