On 02/04/2015 05:52 PM, Kurtis Rader wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 5:31 PM, Ray Andrews <rayandrews@eastlink.ca 
> <mailto:rayandrews@eastlink.ca>> wrote:
>
>     On 02/04/2015 03:47 PM, Lawrence Velázquez wrote:
>
>         % echo - -
>
>     Ok, the first hyphen gets eaten, and the next one is literal.
>     Still, shouldn't
>     single quotes make anything inside them literal?
>
>
> The single-quotes simply inhibit the shell from performing any 
> substitutions (e.g., of $var references) inside the quoted string. The 
> quotes also inhibit splitting the string on $IFS boundaries; i.e., the 
> shell will pass the resulting string as a single argument to the 
> command. The echo command simply gets a hyphen whether or not you 
> quoted it. The echo command has no way of knowing that it was 
> originally enclosed in single-quotes.

Of course.  I get fuzzified about the handoff from the shell to external
commands.  A bonk on the head and all is clear. Never again.