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  • I realized that there is not tag for "serialization" yet ;-) Also please explain the effect of setting an empty delimiter for readarray. Commented Nov 25, 2022 at 8:21
  • @U.Windl, see info bash readarray which points to its misnomer equivalent: info bash mapfile. Commented Nov 25, 2022 at 8:27
  • The info from info is basically the same as in the BASH manual page, but still it does not really explain the effect of an empty delimiter. I could guess that an empty string is represented as a binary zero internally, but maybe some day the argument checker might complain that the argument to -d cannot be empty... Commented Nov 25, 2022 at 8:33
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    @U.Windl, maybe the older versions of the manual were not as clear, but the current version doesn't leave any doubt as to what -d with an empty string does. Note that info bash is the manual same as the one you get in man, though using man for a manual this size is not really appropriate IMO. Commented Nov 25, 2022 at 9:02
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    This seems very strained as an example of serialization, unless you are thinking of a command-line command as some kind of "object". It looks a lot more like ordinary string escaping. Commented Nov 25, 2022 at 9:52