Re: IFS field splitting doesn't conform with POSIX

[Saint Michael]

There is an additional problem with IFS and the command read

Suppose I have variable  $line with a string "a,b,c,d"
IFS=',' read -r x1 <<< $line
Bash will assign the whole line to x1
 echo $x1
line="a,b,c,d";IFS=',' read -r x1 <<< $line;echo $x1;
a,b,c,d
but if I use two variables
line="a,b,c,d";IFS=',' read -r x1 x2 <<< $line;echo "$x1 ---> $x2";
a ---> b,c,d
this is incorrect. If IFS=",", then a read -r statement must assign the
first value to the single variable, and disregard the rest.
and so on, with (n) variables.
The compelling reason is: I may not know how many values are stored in the
comma-separated list.
GNU AWK, for instance, acts responsibly in the same exact situation:
line="a,b,c,d";awk -F, '{print $1}' <<< $line
a
We need to fix this





On Sat, Apr 1, 2023, 6:11 PM Mike Jonkmans <bashbug@jonkmans.nl> wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 01, 2023 at 03:27:47PM -0400, Lawrence Velázquez wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 31, 2023, at 2:10 PM, Chet Ramey wrote:
> > > kre filed an interpretation request to get the language cleaned up.
> >
> > For those who might be interested:
> >
> > https://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1649
>
> Thanks for the link.
>
> And well done, kre!
>
> --
> Regards, Mike Jonkmans
>
>