1. internal field separators system> $IFS A predefined environment variable in the Unix Bourne shell whose default value is the three-character string containing space, tab and line feed. Any string of one or more of these characters separates the command and each of its arguments in a command line. $IFS also tells the shells built-in read command where to split an input line when reading into multiple variables. E. g. setting IFS=: would be appropriate for reading a file with :-separated fields, such as /etc/passwd.
internal field separators | separator | separatory |
