Re: String replacement drops leading '-e' if replacing char is a space

[Kerin Millar]

On Mon, 14 Aug 2023 02:11:27 +0000
pphick via Bug reports for the GNU Bourne Again SHell <bug-bash@gnu.org> wrote:

> If a string starts with '-e' the replacement operators ${x//,/ } and ${x/, /} 
> drop the '-e'.
> The behaviour seems to be very specific: the string must start with '-e' and 
> the replacing character has to be a space.
> 
> Repeat-By:
> 
> x='-e,b,c'
> echo ${x//,/ }
> b c
> echo ${x/,/ }
> b,c

This is to be expected. Given that you haven't quoted the expansion, word 
splitting occurs, after which echo is run with three arguments. The first of 
these arguments is -e, which is treated as an option.

-- 
Kerin Millar