Should I use quotes in environment path names?

Question

I\'m in the process of cleaning up all my config files in an attempt to make them as readable as possible. I\'ve been looking for a style guide on the use of quotes while export

Answer 1

test 123 is a valid path name on UNIX. Try

PATH=test 123

It will return:

123: command not found

Or even

export PATH=test 123

which will return

bash export: `123': not a valid identifier

Does it answer your question?

Honestly I would not follow such fourth party style guides. Although I'm astonished that even Google advertises such wrong advices.

I would follow:

• http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-Guide/html/Bash-Beginners-Guide.html
• http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/
• https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html

(to be carefully extended)