Behaviour of ASCII character 127 (0x7f)

[chris]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: i586
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: i586-mandrake-linux-gnu-gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i586' 
-DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i586-mandrake-linux-gnu' 
-DCONF_VENDOR='mandrake' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H  -I.  -I. -I./include -I./lib 
-D_GNU_SOURCE  -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -mcpu=pentiumpro -march=i586 
-ffast-math -fno-strength-reduce
uname output: Linux xword.rogers.com 2.4.19-16mdk #1 Fri Sep 20 18:15:05 CEST 
2002 i686 unknown unknown GNU/Linux
Machine Type: i586-mandrake-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 2.05b
Patch Level: 0
Release Status: release

Description:
        The ASCII character 127 (0x7f) disappears when embedded in a string

Repeat-By:

qtest() {
    echo ${#q}
    echo "${q}" | od -c
    echo  ${q}  | od -c
    echo
}

q=$'\x7F'
qtest

q=${q}a
qtest

q=$'\x7Fa'
qtest

q="${q}a"
qtest