Apr 3, 2012 · The shell splits tokens based on the contents of the IFS environment variable. Its default value is \t\n; i.e., whitespace, tab, and newline. Expanding "$@" gives you a pristine …

The shell treats several parameters specially. These parameters may only be referenced; assignment to them is not allowed. [...]? Expands to the exit status of the most recently …

The above (along with many more forms of ${parameter…something_else} constructs) are discussed at greater length in the shell’s man page, bash(1). A Note on Quotes. Note that you …

Feb 20, 2011 · This latter usage is faster, does not contaminate the shell's variable namespace with what amounts to temp variables, can often be a lot more readable for humans and …

Shell - "Shell" is a program, which facilitates the interaction between the user and the operating system (kernel). There are many shell implementations available, like sh, Bash, C shell, Z …

You can always check the man page of your shell. man bash says: Special Parameters # Expands to the number of positional parameters in decimal. Therefore a shell script can check …

What is the difference between =, == and -eq in shell scripting? Is there any difference between the following?

That implies that using "$@" first generates a quoted string, and then that the shell then parses it on deciding how to run the next command. It would be more accurate to say that the string …

Jul 12, 2010 · Special built-ins are required to be built into the shell; Regular built-ins are only "typically" built in, but it isn't strictly guaranteed. There usually shouldn't be a regular program …

Nov 15, 2010 · A bashism is a shell feature which is only supported in bash and certain other more advanced shells. It will not work under busybox sh or dash (which is /bin/sh on a lot of …