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1

I saw the following substitution in this article:

${PWD/#$HOME/~}

How does it compare to this?

${PWD/$HOME/~}

Both seem to be the same. I don't know why the hash was included.

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1 Answer 1

up vote 6 down vote accepted

man bash, explanation for ${parameter/pattern/string}:

If pattern begins with #, it must match at the beginning of the expanded value of parameter. If pattern begins with %, it must match at the end of the expanded value of parameter.

> var=abcd
> echo "${var/bc/_}"
a_d
> echo "${var/#bc/_}"
abcd
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