> ... > $ IFS="" > $ f() { echo $1; }; x="a b c"; f $x > a b c > > But, IFS influences `read`, which of course benefits from word > splitting. In light of that conflict, I propose two possible > solutions: > > 1: shopt -s unsplit_vars > > which will turn off word splitting for var expansion. > > or 2: new IFS2 var that will override IFS for `read` (i.e. `read` will > use IFS2 when IFS is unset). >
Could also do: IFS=$'\n\t' echo "Checking..."; echo -n "$IFS"|hexdump The IFS on the read could be considered script documentation for the contents of the current file. Similar to awk's FS. while IFS=: read -re line; do : ; done < file Interesting read here, but pertains to splitting and filenames: http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/filenames-in-shell.html But could perhaps provide a supportive argument, maybe, for your suggestion option #1. http://mywiki.wooledge.org/Quotes is helpful. Peggy Russell