IFS
IFS (Internal Field Separator) is a special environment variable that defines the delimiter used for word splitting in Unix shells. The default value of IFS is a space, tab, and newline. The three characters serve as delimiters. More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Word-Splitting.html.
- View the current IFS value:
echo "$IFS"
- Change the IFS value:
IFS="
:"
- Reset IFS to default:
IFS=$' \t\n'
- Temporarily change the IFS value in a subshell:
(IFS="
:"; echo "
one:two:three")