Very Computer

I just read in a book that to one way to find out the value of an
enviroment variable is to give it as the argument to echo, preceded
by a $ and surrounded by double quotes, as in echo "$FOO".  Why
the quotes?  It seems that I get the same results whether I do echo
$FOO or echo "$FOO".

Thanks!

        Karl

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--

Linux solution for data processing.

AND

to avoid wildcard expansion incase FOO contains the file-globbing
chars like * ? [ etc.

Quote:> I just read in a book that to one way to find out the value of an
> enviroment variable is to give it as the argument to echo, preceded
> by a $ and surrounded by double quotes, as in echo "$FOO".  Why
> the quotes?  It seems that I get the same results whether I do echo
> $FOO or echo "$FOO".

That's because of the special behavior of Bourne like shells
(not zsh unless in sh/ksh compatibility mode). When a variable
is left unquoted, word splitting occurs and filename generation
is done.

That means that if

var="1|*"

(and the internal field separator is "|" (IFS="|"))

in:

echo $var

echo is passed several arguments: "1" and the list of (non-dot)
filenames in the current directory.

zsh (and rc and es) have a more consistent behavior, however
note that (not for rc nore es that have a yet more consistent
behavior)

echo $var

and

echo "$var"

are different in case $var is empty. In the first case, echo is
passed no argument. In the second, it is passed one empty one.

--
Stephane

Thanks!

        Karl
--
Sent from a spam-bucket account; I check it once in a blue moon.  If
you still want to e-mail me, cut out the extension from my address,
and make the obvious substitutions on what's left.