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I don't understand the behavior of Bash in this case:

If I type git branch, I get a list of branches.

BUT if I try to put it into a variable, say, b=`git branch`; echo $b, I get an output as if I made ls; git branch. The content of a directory is listed together with the branches.

Could someone please explain this behavior?

Karen Fidanyan
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1 Answers1

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git branch indicates the current branch using *. When you run

b=`git branch`; echo $b

since $b is used unquoted with echo, this * is expanded by the shell, showing the files in the current directory. Quoting will avoid that:

b=`git branch`; echo "$b"
Kusalananda
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Stephen Kitt
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