title: When setting IFS to split on newlines, why is it necessary to include a backspace?
body: <p>I'm curious as to why the backspace is necessary when setting IFS to split on newlines like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Why can I not just use this (which doesn't work) instead?</p>
  
  <pre><code>IFS=$(echo -en "\n")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm on a Linux system that is saving files with Unix line endings.  I've converted my file with newlines to hex and it definitely only uses "0a" as the newline character.</p>
  
  <p>I've googled a lot and although many pages document the newline followed by backspace solution, none that I have found explain why the backspace is required.</p>
  
  <p>-David.</p>