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Gabriel A. Devenyi edited this page Jun 27, 2016 · 5 revisions

Double quote array expansions to avoid re-splitting elements.

Problematic code:

cp $@ ~/dir

Correct code:

cp "$@" ~/dir

Rationale:

Double quotes around $@ (and similarly, ${array[@]}) prevents globbing and word splitting of individual elements, while still expanding to multiple separate arguments.

Let's say you have three arguments: baz, foo bar and *

"$@" will expand into exactly that: baz, foo bar and *

$@ will expand into multiple other arguments: baz, foo, bar, file.txt and otherfile.jpg

Since the latter is rarely expected or desired, ShellCheck warns about it.

Exceptions

When you want globbing of individual elements.

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