IFS contains Meta - why?

IFS contains Meta - why?

[J.D. Laub]

% rcsdiff -r2.9 -r2.10 init.c,v
2c2
<  * $Id: init.c,v 2.8 1996/05/02 23:01:04 [...]
---
>  * $Id: init.c,v 2.9 1996/05/02 23:01:04 [...]
[...]
603c606,607
<     ifs         = ztrdup(" \t\n");
---
>     ifs         = ztrdup(" \t\n  ");
>     ifs[3]      = Meta;

1) Why does a space (0x20) appear both at the start and end of IFS?
2) Why is Meta in there (contrary to the man page)?  The sort command
    under HPUX 10.01 stops processing when it runs across non-ascii
    characters, so I see nothing after IFS when I run "set | sort".
-- 
J.D. Laub (Laubster) HBOC/CliniCom|"I think you're very, very, very, very, very,
jdl@clinicom.com     Boulder,CO   |very, very, very, very, ..." - Flying Lizards

Re: IFS contains Meta - why?

[Zefram]

>>     ifs         = ztrdup(" \t\n  ");
>>     ifs[3]      = Meta;
>
>1) Why does a space (0x20) appear both at the start and end of IFS?
>2) Why is Meta in there (contrary to the man page)?

The combination {Meta, ' '} is used to represent NUL.  IFS now, by
default, consists of space, tab, newline and NUL.

>                                                     The sort command
>    under HPUX 10.01 stops processing when it runs across non-ascii
>    characters, so I see nothing after IFS when I run "set | sort".

It can't handle the NUL, which is hardly surprising really.

-zefram