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    Wow. Using -n, rather than -N as the read builtin argument indeed nailed it. I had not tried -n because -N seemed indeed so much better suited to my purpose. I had tried -d '', though, without any effect, which is understandable given that the specs of -N clearly state that no delimiters are observed. Now, with -n I do have to care about delimiters, but that's easy (as between the lines you point out too). Thanks a lot! Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 16:33
  • I take it you suggest using printf```` instead of od``` because it's a builtin and therefore should be faster, as no new process needs to be forked? Commented Dec 29, 2020 at 16:40