What's the difference between $@ and $* in UNIX?

Question

What\'s the difference between $@ and $* in UNIX? When echoed in a script, they both seem to produce the same output.

Answer 1

Please see the bash man page under Special Parameters.

   Special Parameters
       The shell treats several parameters specially.   These  parameters  may
       only be referenced; assignment to them is not allowed.
       *      Expands  to  the positional parameters, starting from one.  When
              the expansion occurs within double quotes, it expands to a  sin‐
              gle word with the value of each parameter separated by the first
              character of the IFS special variable.  That is, "$*" is equiva‐
              lent to "$1c$2c...", where c is the first character of the value
              of the IFS variable.  If IFS is unset, the parameters are  sepa‐
              rated  by  spaces.   If  IFS  is null, the parameters are joined
              without intervening separators.
       @      Expands to the positional parameters, starting from  one.   When
              the  expansion  occurs  within  double  quotes,  each  parameter
              expands to a separate word.  That is, "$@" is equivalent to "$1"
              "$2"  ...   If the double-quoted expansion occurs within a word,
              the expansion of the first parameter is joined with  the  begin‐
              ning  part  of  the original word, and the expansion of the last
              parameter is joined with the last part  of  the  original  word.
              When  there  are no positional parameters, "$@" and $@ expand to
              nothing (i.e., they are removed).