3 ms·It is subject to wildcard expansion. You can verify this with var="/*"; echo $varby koala_man 8y agoIt is subject to wildcard expansion. You can verify this with var="/*"; echo $varkazinator 8y agoOoops, you're right! I somehow mixed this up with special contexts. case $var in '*' ) echo asterisk ;; esac But wildcard expansion is suppressed there unconditionally. Same as in assignment context: other=$var.Hello71 8y agothose both suppress word splitting too.