Shell Programming and Scripting

#!/bin/sh
my_args="1 2 3 '4 5' 6"
echo "Count of arguments when using my_args:"
echo "./arguments_count.sh $my_args" > ./my_args.sh    #put whole command into a file 
sh ./my_args.sh                        #run the file
echo "Count of arguments when using direct string:"
echo "./arguments_count.sh 1 2 3 '4 5' 6" > ./my_string.sh    #put whole command into a file
sh ./my_string.sh                        #run the file

eval /.arguments_count.sh "$my_args"

$ printf "%s\n" $my_args
a
b
c
\'d
e\'
f
g

UGLYMESS="a b 'c d' e"
OLDIFS="$IFS"

# Split unquoted strings on newlines and ONLY newlines.
IFS="
"

# xargs printf "%s\n" will print every separate argument or quoted section on its own newline.
# You could set $1=a, $2=b, $3="c d", $4=e
set -- $(echo "$UGLYMESS" | xargs printf "%s\n" )
# ...or put them into an array like this:
ARR=( $(echo "$UGLYMESS" | xargs printf "%s\n" ) )

# Now that we've stored them already split, we can restore IFS.
IFS="$OLDIFS"