Field splitting

After parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion, qsh scans the results of expansions and substitutions that did not occur in double quotation marks for field splitting. Multiple fields can result.

qsh treats each character of the IFS variable as a delimiter and uses the delimiters to split the results of parameter expansion and command substitution into fields. If the value of the IFS variable is null, no field splitting is performed.

Path name expansion

When the noglob option is not set, path name expansion is performed after field splitting is complete. Each word is viewed as a series of patterns, separated by slashes. The process of expansion replaces the word with the names of all existing files whose names can be formed by replacing each pattern with a string that matches the specified pattern. There are two restrictions:

1. a pattern cannot match a string containing a slash
2. a pattern cannot match a string starting with a period unless the first character of the pattern is a period

Quote removal

The quote characters, backslash (\), single quotation mark (`), and double quotation mark ("), are removed unless the character has been quoted.