Re: Word splitting for $@ in variable assignment

[Greg Wooledge]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 03:15:25PM +0200, Nora Platiel wrote:
> But at least it is documented, and that part of the doc is clear to me.
> The part of the doc that I'm complaining about is this one:
> 
> | A variable may be assigned to by a statement of the form
> |     name=[value]
> | [...]
> | Word splitting is not performed, with the exception of "$@" as
> | explained below.

This isn't the full sentence in the current man page.  In the bash 5.1
man page, it says:

   Word splitting is not
   performed, with the exception of "$@" as explained below under  Special
   Parameters.

So, we need to look at Special Parameters:

       @      Expands to the positional parameters,  starting  from  one.   In
              contexts  where  word  splitting is performed, this expands each
              positional parameter to a separate word; if  not  within  double
              quotes,  these words are subject to word splitting.  In contexts
              where word splitting is not performed, this expands to a  single
              word  with each positional parameter separated by a space.

That matches the behavior that I saw (and pasted on this mailing list the
other day).  (Which by the way is *not* the same as "$*" unless IFS happens
to be unset or to begin with a space.)

If Chet feels that a change is needed here, I would remove the "with
the exception of" clause entirely.  Just say "Word splitting is not
performed."