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From: Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org>
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Subject: Re: Unquoted array slice ${a[@]:0} expands to just one word if IFS doesn't have a space
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2018 09:40:12 -0400
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On Wed, Aug 01, 2018 at 04:06:03PM +0300, Ilkka Virta wrote:
> Unquoted $* seems well-defined in Bash's reference manual:
> 
>   ($*) Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one. When the
>   expansion is not within double quotes, each positional parameter
>   expands to a separate word.

But not in reality.

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2017-06/msg00283.html

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2017-09/msg00058.html

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2018-01/msg00035.html

Unquoted $* or $@ is just a disaster.  Don't do it.