Shell Programming and Scripting

$ cat nargs
#! /bin/ksh

function show_args {
        typeset -i i=0
        while ((i<$#)) ; do
                ((i=i+1))
                eval arg=\$$i
                echo ${i}:${arg}
        done
        return 0
}

echo
echo 'with ${1+"$@"}'
show_args ${1+"$@"}

set -A save ${1+"$@"}
i=0
while ((i<${#save[*]})) ; do
        echo 'save['${i}']='${save[i]}
        ((i=i+1))
done

echo
set nada
echo after clobbering args
show_args ${1+"$@"}

echo
set "${save[@]}"
echo after restoring args
show_args ${1+"$@"}


exit 0
$ ./nargs "" 2 3 "444 444"

with ${1+"$@"}
1:
2:2
3:3
4:444 444
save[0]=
save[1]=2
save[2]=3
save[3]=444 444

after clobbering args
1:nada

after restoring args
1:
2:2
3:3
4:444 444
$