Passing arguments with spaces between (bash) script

Question

I've got the following bash two scripts

a.sh:

#!/bin/bash
./b.sh 'My Argument'

b.sh:

#!/bin/bash
someApp $*

The someApp binary receives $* as 2 arguments ('My' and 'Argument') instead of 1.

I've tested several things:

• Running someApp only thru b.sh works as expected
• Iterate+echo the arguments in b.sh works as expected
• Using $@ instead of $* doesn't make a difference

Answer 1

$* , unquoted, expands to two words. You need to quote it so that someApp receives a single argument.

someApp "$*"

It's possible that you want to use $@ instead, so that someApp would receive two arguments if you were to call b.sh as

b.sh 'My first' 'My second'

With someApp "$*" , someApp would receive a single argument My first My second . With someApp "$@" , someApp would receive two arguments, My first and My second .