They are not both totally valid. You almost always want "$@". If you're using $* , you're not supporting arguments that contain spaces, and you'll break if ar

They are not both totally valid. You almost always want "$@". If you're using $* , you're not supporting arguments that contain spaces, and you'll break if arguments contain wildcards. If you're using "$*" , you're treating multiple arguments as a single argument. https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/41595/3169 https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/41595/3169