Re: Spaces in File name Handling

[Paul Jarc]

alupu@att.net wrote:
> Does this go all the way back to the old "Doug McIlroy" philosophy
> on echo described in "The Unix Programming Environment" - Using the
> Shell, by BWK and RP?

I'm not familiar with it.  Got a URL?

> It appears that if I _quote_ the argument to echo, the shell will
> finally behave as expected (by the uninitiated) and echo will show the
> naked truth (splits and all).

I think we're not using the word "split" the same way.  When I say
"split", I'm talking about the action performed by the shell to turn
one value (like an unquoted $TMP) into (maybe just one, or maybe
multiple) words.  You seem to think of the word "split" as referring
to a kind of character - those in $IFS, I guess.

So yes, if you run:
$ echo "$TMP"
Then echo's output will include any $IFS characters that happen to be
in $TMP.  But to describe this in terms of "splits", I would say there
there are no splits - i.e., the shell is not doing any splitting.  The
$TMP value remains whole (unsplit).

> Had I known that (or seen it mentioned somewhere) I _may_ have had
> the chance to figure out the $IFS business on my own

It's in the man page.  Look for the "Word Splitting" heading.


paul