curiosity: quoting in /etc/default

[Ross Boylan <ross@biostat.ucsf.edu>]

I was a little surprised to find that I needed to quote my variable
definitions in /etc/default, at least for nfs-kernel-server.
RPCMOUNTDOPTS="--manage-gids --no-nfs-version 4"
works, but
RPCMOUNTDOPTS=--manage-gids --no-nfs-version 4
produces
# /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart
/etc/default/nfs-kernel-server: line 12: --no-nfs-version: command not
found

Is it generally the case that multi-word arguments should be quoted
in /etc/default?

/etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server includes
  start-stop-daemon --start --oknodo --quiet \
    --exec $PREFIX/sbin/rpc.mountd -- $RPCMOUNTDOPTS
I don't see -- mentioned in the man page for start-stop-daemon or
rpc.mountd.

Ross Boylan