special variable $@ and $*

[Loïc Grenié]

2009/12/5 Kaushal Shriyan <kaushalshriyan at gmail.com>:
> Hi,
>
> http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/internalvariables.html#APPREF
>
> I did not understand the difference between $@ and $* special variable.
> Please explain me with an example.

   If your script is script:

#!/bin/sh
ls $*
ls $@
ls "$*"
ls "$@"

   then

script first "second long" and third

   would call ls with respectively:

ls first second long and third  (5 args)
ls first second long and third  (5 args)
ls "first second long and third" (1 arg)
ls first "second long" and third (4 args -- the same you gave to the script)

     Hope this helps,

            Loïc