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From: maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: sh built-in quirk (was: Is this a bug in sh?)
Message-ID: <2844@kappl.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 8 Jul 89 01:58:43 GMT
References: <PAUL.89Jul4155856@marvin.moncam.co.uk> <1634@zen.co.uk> <769@root44.co.uk>
Organization: V.U. Informatica, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Lines: 14

$ foo=bar date > /dev/null
$ echo $foo

$ zork=mids echo $zork > /dev/null
$ echo $zork
mids
$

This is definitely a bug: there should be no difference between the behavior
of normal commands and that of built-in commands. Otherwise a shellscript
assuming `date' is a non-built-in command, might someday fail mysteriously.
-- 
"I HATE arbitrary limits, especially when |Maarten Litmaath @ VU Amsterdam:
   they're small."  (Stephen Savitzky)    |maart@cs.vu.nl, mcvax!botter!maart