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

[Peng Yu]

On Sun, Feb 2, 2014 at 2:58 PM, Chet Ramey <address@hidden> wrote:
> 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.

Yes. That will be great. It even better to show the double quote as well.

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

-- 
Regards,
Peng