What is the difference between using an environment variable, like PATH, as $PATH or ${PATH}?
What is the difference between using an environment variable, like PATH, as $PATH or
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What is the difference between using an environment variable, like PATH, as $PATH or ${PATH}?
There’s no difference in most cases. The only times it matters is if you want to include trailing text after the expansion. For example, suppose your
PATHcontained the stringFOO(not actually a valid path, but this is for an example), and you wanted to form the stringFOOBAR. If you didYou would get the expansion of the variable named
PATHBAR, which is probably not what you wanted. If you didYou would get a space between
FOOandBAR, also not what you wanted. The solution is to use braces:This gives you
FOOBAR.