Re: [Help-bash] The difference between $* and "$*"?

[Chet Ramey]

On 2/1/14, 1:58 PM, Seth David Schoen wrote:
> Peng Yu writes:
>> 
>> I'm trying to understand the different between $* and "$*". The
>> following shows that they behave differently when IFS is not the
>> default. But the above paragraph from the manual does not explain
>> this. Could anybody let me know if this is documented somewhere else
>> in the manual and how to understand the difference? Thanks.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> The difference is whether it "expands to a single word" or to multiple
> words.

Would it help to add this sentence?

"When not within double quotes, each positional parameter expands to a
separate word."

It seems to me that that could have eliminated the confusion.

Chet

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    address@hidden    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/