shell - Understanding IFS - Unix Linux Stack Exchange The following few threads on this site and StackOverflow were helpful for understanding how IFS works: What is IFS in context of for looping? How to loop over the lines of a file Bash, read line by
Understanding IFS= read -r line - Unix Linux Stack Exchange Using IFS= LC_ALL=C read -r line works around it there Using var=value cmd syntax makes sure IFS LC_ALL are only set differently for the duration of that cmd command History note The read builtin was introduced by the Bourne shell and was already to read words, not lines There are a few important differences with modern POSIX shells
Why is `while IFS= read` used so often, instead of `IFS=; while read. . `? The IFS= read -r line sets the environment variable IFS (to an empty value) specifically for the execution of read This is an instance of the general simple command syntax: a (possibly empty) sequence of variable assignments followed by a command name and its arguments (also, you can throw in redirections at any point)
Setting IFS for a single statement - Unix Linux Stack Exchange I know that a custom IFS value can be set for the scope of a single command built-in Is there a way to set a custom IFS value for a single statement?? Apparently not, since based on the below the
understanding the default value of IFS - Unix Linux Stack Exchange Here if the expansion contains any IFS characters, then it split into different 'words' before the command is processed Effectively this means that these characters split the substituted text into different arguments (including the name of the command if the variable is specified first)