Interview › Scripting (Bash, Groovy)
What is the difference between $@ and $* when quoted? [Basic]
Answer
When quoted, "$@" expands to separate quoted arguments, while "$*" expands to one string joined by the first character of IFS. For almost all argument forwarding, "$@" is the correct choice.
Technical explanation
"$@" preserves the exact argument list, including arguments containing spaces or empty strings.
"$*" is useful only when intentionally joining all arguments into one string.
Unquoted $@ and $* both undergo word splitting and are usually unsafe.
Hands-on example
set -- "one arg" "two" ""
printf '<%s>\n' "$@" # prints three arguments safely
printf '<%s>\n' "$*" # prints one joined string
wrapper() { real_command "$@"; } # correct forwarding pattern
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