Re: Word splitting for $@ in variable assignment

[Nora Platiel]

I was also confused by the same statement.

On 2021-06-24 10:20 Chet Ramey wrote:
> > But 3.4 Shell Parameters is a bit confusing: "Word splitting is not
> > performed, with the exception of "$@" as explained below."
>
> This means that "$@" expands to multiple words, even though double quotes
> would usually inhibit that.

To me, "$@" expanding to multiple words would mean that:

$ var="$@" foo

for $# > 0, behaves the same as:

$ var="$1" "${@:2}" foo

which is obviously not the case.

I don't know how this is implemented, maybe they are actually split into 
multiple words, and such words somehow remain in the context of the assignment 
and are rejoined later.
But the user doesn't see that. The user just see that on the RHS of an 
assignment, "$@" produces a single string (by joining arguments), and such 
string is not split in any way.

I second the proposal of removing the part: `with the exception of "$@" as 
explained below', because I think it serves no useful purpose and adds 
confusion.

Regards,
NP