Shell - difference between '\[emailprotected

There are no difference between?$*?and?[email?protected],but there is a difference between?"[email?protected]"?and?"$*".

$ cat 1.sh mkdir "$*" $ cat 2.sh mkdir "[email?protected]" $ sh 1.sh a "b c" d $ ls -l total 12 -rw-r--r-- 1 igor igor 11 mar 24 10:20 1.sh -rw-r--r-- 1 igor igor 11 mar 24 10:20 2.sh drwxr-xr-x 2 igor igor 4096 mar 24 10:21 a b c d

We gave three arguments to the script (a,?b c?and?d) but in "$*" they all were merged into one argument?a b c d.

$ sh 2.sh a "b c" d $ ls -l total 24 -rw-r--r-- 1 igor igor 11 mar 24 10:20 1.sh -rw-r--r-- 1 igor igor 11 mar 24 10:20 2.sh drwxr-xr-x 2 igor igor 4096 mar 24 10:21 a drwxr-xr-x 2 igor igor 4096 mar 24 10:21 a b c d drwxr-xr-x 2 igor igor 4096 mar 24 10:21 b c drwxr-xr-x 2 igor igor 4096 mar 24 10:21 d

You can see here,that?"$*"?means always one single argument,and?"[email?protected]"?contains as many arguments,as the script had. "[email?protected]" is a special token which means "wrap each individual argument in quotes". So?a "b c" d?becomes (or rather stays)?"a" "b c" "d"?instead of?"a b c d"?("$*") or?"a" "b" "c" "d"?([email?protected]?or?$*).

Copied from:?https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15596826/what-is-the-difference-between-and-in-shell-script