It won't matter until it does, but $@ expands arguments into separate words but those expansions are themselves only word-preserved if the $@ is itself quoted.

It won't matter until it does, but $@ expands arguments into separate words but those expansions are themselves only word-preserved if the $@ is itself quoted. The [ will probably get away with what you want, but its use in $(git add) and $(git last-sha) almost certainly will not $ cat > tmp.sh <<'FOO' for a in $@; do echo "a=$a"; done echo for b in "$@"; do echo "b=$b"; done echo for c in $*; do echo "c=$c"; done echo for d in "$*"; do echo "d=$d"; done echo FOO $ bash tmp.sh 'alpha beta' $'charlie\ndelta' a=alpha a=beta a=charlie a=delta b=alpha beta b=charlie delta c=alpha c=beta c=charlie c=delta d=alpha beta charlie delta