A script is called with two arguments: `./run.sh "annual report" 2026`. How does `"$@"` differ from `"$*"` when the script passes them on to another command?
LPIC-1 Exam 102-500, objective 105. Shells and shell scripting hard
Machine-checked — no person has signed for it. This question was read against the source cited below by an automated pass, which found no contradiction. That is a weaker claim than it sounds: the same kind of process wrote the question, so it can confirm its own mistake.
Treat it as a good draft rather than as settled fact, and read the source below before you rely on it. It is not used in mock exams here — only questions a person has signed for are.
How these questions are written — where each question comes from, what the verification ledger records, and what happens when one is found wrong.
The options
Not correct They are identical; the two spellings are aliases for each other.
Wrong. Unquoted they behave alike, but quoted they differ, and quoting them is exactly what correct scripts do.
Not correct "$@" gives one word per argument and "$*" additionally drops empty arguments.
Wrong about "$*". It does not filter arguments; it concatenates all of them, empty ones included, into a single word.
Not correct "$@" includes $0 while "$*" does not.
Wrong. Neither includes $0. Both expand only the positional parameters starting at $1.
Correct "$@" expands to two separate words, `annual report` and `2026`, while "$*" expands to the single word `annual report 2026`.
Correct. "$@" preserves argument boundaries, one word per parameter. "$*" joins all parameters into one word, separated by the first character of IFS, normally a space.
Why
Use "$@" whenever you forward arguments, since it is the only form that keeps an argument containing spaces intact. "$*" is useful when you deliberately want one string, for example in a log message. Unquoted, $@ and $* behave the same and both split on whitespace, which loses the boundaries again.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- LPI exam objective 105.2
- What it says
- Pass the script's arguments on to other commands correctly.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a short set from objective 105 and space the ones you get wrong.
More questions on this objective
- A user logs in at a text console, and bash starts as an interactive login shell. Which file in that user's home directory is read by bash itself as part of login startup? machine-checked
- You are already logged in to a graphical desktop and open a new terminal window, so bash starts as an interactive shell that is not a login shell. Which per-user file does bash read in that case? machine-checked
- An executable script contains only the line `export EDITOR=vim`. After running it as `./setenv.sh`, `echo $EDITOR` in the calling shell prints nothing. What explains this? machine-checked
- In bash, what is the effect of `export MYVAR`? machine-checked
- At a bash prompt you run `alias ll='ls -l'` and it works for the rest of that session, but a terminal window opened afterwards does not recognise `ll`. Which statement explains this and gives the standard remedy? machine-checked
- A command finishes and the shell reports an exit status of 0. What does that mean, and which parameter reports it? machine-checked