internal field separators

operating system ($IFS) A predefined environment variable

in the Unix Bourne shell whose default value is the

three-character string containing space, tab and linefeed. 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 shell's 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.

(1999-04-07)