# Plugin requires bash process substitution

**URL:** <https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/plugin-requires-bash-process-substitution/2065>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** plugins\
**Created:** [May 26, 2022, 10:51pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/plugin-requires-bash-process-substitution/2065 "2022-05-26T22:51:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tom-huntington](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/tom-huntington/32/1067_2.png) [@tom-huntington](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/tom-huntington)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 10:51pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/plugin-requires-bash-process-substitution/2065/1 "2022-05-26T22:51:41Z")

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Eko’s [recent buffers plugin](https://github.com/eko234/kakoune-recent-buffers) uses process substitution

> <https://github.com/eko234/kakoune-recent-buffers/blob/44b050c06542f76a7af8ae1ba1b359ef58bc63da/kakoune-recent-buffers.kak#L26>

However, this doesn’t work for me since my Kakoune runs POSIX shell.

I’m not sure how to get Kakoune to run bash, not sure if I should even do this.

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**Author:** ![Screwtapello](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/screwtapello/32/12_2.png) [@Screwtapello](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/Screwtapello)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 10:54am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/plugin-requires-bash-process-substitution/2065/2 "2022-05-27T10:54:44Z")

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Getting Kakoune to run `bash` instead of a pure POSIX shell is easy: just set the `$KAKOUNE_POSIX_SHELL` shell variable to any shell you like before starting Kakoune.

A more permanent solution would be to fix the plugin to not use bash’s process substitution feature, and either write the data to temporary files, set up temporary FIFOs (which is what bash actually does) or re-implement the plugin in a different way.

Even if you’re not confident about making the change yourself, you could [file an issue](https://github.com/eko234/kakoune-recent-buffers/issues) on the GitHub repository. I know I always get excited when somebody files an issue against one of my plugins; even if it’s not easy to fix, it’s encouraging to hear that other people are using my code.

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**Author:** ![tom-huntington](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/tom-huntington/32/1067_2.png) [@tom-huntington](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/tom-huntington)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/plugin-requires-bash-process-substitution/2065/3 "2022-05-27T20:55:40Z")

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> `$KAKOUNE_POSIX_SHELL`

Thanks

> Even if you’re not confident about making the change yourself

I’ll have a go as a learning exercise, thanks

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**Author:** ![eko234](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/eko234/32/1036_2.png) [@eko234](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/eko234)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/plugin-requires-bash-process-substitution/2065/4 "2022-05-28T21:02:23Z")

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Hi!, I just merged your pull request, thanks for your contribution, hope you are finding it as useful as I do 😃

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**Author:** ![tom-huntington](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/tom-huntington/32/1067_2.png) [@tom-huntington](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/tom-huntington)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/plugin-requires-bash-process-substitution/2065/5 "2022-05-29T00:28:06Z")

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> [@eko234](#):
>
> hope you are finding it as useful as I

Yes, you really need more than just `ga`