Q:

Bash set +x without it being printed

Does anyone know if we can say set +x in bash without it being printed:
set -x
command
set +x

traces
+ command
+ set +x

but it should just print
+ command

Bash is Version 4.1.10(4). This is bugging me for some time now - output is cluttered with useless set +x lines, making the trace facility not as useful as it could be.

A:

I had the same problem, and I was able to find a solution that doesn't use a subshell:
set -x
command
{ set +x; } 2>/dev/null

A:

You can use a subshell. Upon exiting the subshell, the setting to x will be lost:
( set -x ; command )

A:

I hacked up a solution to this just recently when I became annoyed with it:
shopt -s expand_aliases
_xtrace() {
    case $1 in
        on) set -x ;;
        off) set +x ;;
    esac
}
alias xtrace='{ _xtrace $(cat); } 2>/dev/null <<<'

This allows you to enable and disable xtrace as in the following, where I'm logging how the arguments are assigned to variables:
xtrace on
ARG1=$1
ARG2=$2
xtrace off

And you get output that looks like:
$ ./script.sh one two
+ ARG1=one
+ ARG2=two

