Problem with echo *

Hello all,

Please help with the below.

I have a requirement where in I have to read a pattern and print it as shown below.

Patterns will be as below.

Input          Output
Pattern       Should be printed as below with spaces such that I can awk.
-*--*         -  *  -  -  *
*--**         *  -  -  *  *
*****        *  *  *  *  *

When I am trying to echo the wildcard after reading the pattern with fold, it is printing all the files in that directory.
I am writing a shell script for DB2 in Korn shell.

Thanks,
t

You have to turn off globbing during the call to the script

set -f
myscript.sh * ___* *
set +f

Or surround the arguments with tics to prevent globbing

myscript.sh '*'  '___*'  '*'

Thank you jim mcnamara

set -f worked for me.