Bashscripts.org

I'm writing a bash script to copy a list of files and do some stuff to them. Basically, I have the code written that does what it needs to do, but I can't quite understand why it works. I was hoping someone could clear up my understanding a bit.



The first line generates a list of files. I wrap each line in quotes because they usually have spaces in the directory names.

The second line changes IFS, and I understand what IFS itself does. What I don't quite get is what the separator becomes with that echo statement. If I'm reading that correctly, the backspace will remove the newline and essentially the result is nothing? I found this solution on a web page somewhere, but it was years old and there was no real explanation.

No idea why IFS is being set like this. The backspace does not delete anything, though, you can test it:

There is a shorter way how to set IFS in bash:

No it doesn't delete anything, how interesting.

Thanks for the shorthand, much cleaner way to do that. The \b did absolutely nothing useful.