bash(1): "If the value of IFS is null, no word splitting occurs."
~ $ IFS=$'\0' ~ $ S=" " ~ $ echo $S"hello" hello ~ $ echo $S"hello"$ hello$ ~ $ echo $S"hello" | xxd 00000000: 2068 656c 6c6f 0a hello. ~ $ echo $S"hello"$ | xxd 00000000: 2068 656c 6c6f 240a hello$. ~ $ unset IFS ~ $ Definitely seems to be somewhere in the word splitting expanse.
