Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual page 63

#!/bin/sh
echo \"$1\" \"$2\" \"$3\" \"$4\"
If you execute this script with the above arguments, you get:
"Tux Penguin" "2000" "" ""
5.5.2 Using Variable Substitution
Variable substitutions apply a pattern to the content of a variable either from the left
or right side. The following list contains the possible syntax forms:
${VAR#pattern}
removes the shortest possible match from the left:
file=/home/tux/book/book.tar.bz2
echo ${file#*/}
home/tux/book/book.tar.bz2
${VAR##pattern}
removes the longest possible match from the left:
file=/home/tux/book/book.tar.bz2
echo ${file##*/}
book.tar.bz2
${VAR%pattern}
removes the shortest possible match from the right:
file=/home/tux/book/book.tar.bz2
echo ${file%.*}
/home/tux/book/book.tar
${VAR%%pattern}
removes the longest possible match from the right:
file=/home/tux/book/book.tar.bz2
echo ${file%%.*}
/home/tux/book/book
Bash and Bash Scripts 49