Re: `$x` adds single quotes during interpolation under Wrong Circumstances

[Chris F.A. Johnson]

On Fri, 2 Apr 2004, philo vivero wrote:

> On Fri, 2004-04-02 at 07:14, Paul Jarc wrote:
> > philo vivero <phiviv@hacklab.net> wrote:
> > > How can I make "echo $a" return "*.log*" if there is a file called
> > > "install.log.syslog" in the cwd?
> >
> > echo "$a"
>
> echo "$a" != echo $a -- this is not pedantic.
>
> It makes a particular function impossible to write (of course I could do
> kludgery by changing CWD to some directory that I know doesn't contain
> certain files, but I hope you don't recommend this).

    What is the problem? Perhaps we can help? Better still, post it to
    the comp.unix.shell newsgroup, as it is not a bug.

> I'm hoping you can tell me that there's a good reason that this:
>
> a=\*.log\*
> echo $a
>
> does a double-expansion. First $a is expanded out to "*.log*" *THEN*
> that is further expanded to install.log.syslog.

    There's only a single expansion (unless you call removal of the
    baskslashes expansion).

    First, the backslashes are removed (they are not necessary;
    a=*.log* is exactly the same as a=\*.log\*), and "*.log*" is
    assigned to a. No expansion is done on assignment.

    When you use $a, it may or may not be expanded, depending on
    whether or not it is quoted, and whether or not the noglob option
    is set.

> If this is a feature-not-a-bug I really don't mind dropping this
> issue. But I still feel it's a bug. Would you accept a patch?

-- 
        Chris F.A. Johnson                      http://cfaj.freeshell.org
        =================================================================
                Everything in moderation -- including moderation