SC2048 – ShellCheck Wiki

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Use "$@" (with quotes) to prevent whitespace problems.

Or: Use "${array[@]}" (with quotes) to prevent whitespace problems.

Problematic code:

cp $* ~/dir
cp ${array[*]} ~/dir

Correct code:

cp "$@" ~/dir
cp "${array[@]}" ~/dir

Rationale:

$* and ${array[*]}, unquoted, is subject to word splitting and globbing.

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

"$@" and "${array[@]}"will expand into exactly that: baz, foo bar and *

$* and ${array[*]} 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

None.

ShellCheck is a static analysis tool for shell scripts. This page is part of its documentation.