Re: printf %q represents null argument as empty string.

[Chet Ramey]

On 1/12/13 9:48 AM, John Kearney wrote:

> anyway now we have a point I disagree that
> "${@}"
> 
> should expand to 0 or more words, from the documentation it should be 1
> or more. At least that is how I read  that paragragh. IT says it will
> split the word not make the word vanish.
> so I had to test and it really does how weird, is that in the posix spec?.

Yes.  Here's the relevant sentence from the man page description of $@:

        When  there  are no positional parameters, "$@" and $@ expand to
        nothing (i.e., they are removed).

Posix says something similar:

        If there are no positional parameters, the expansion of '@' shall
        generate zero fields, even when '@' is double-quoted.

Chet
-- 
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Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/