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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!vsi!friedl
From: friedl@vsi.COM (Stephen J. Friedl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Forcing /bin/sh in a script under V/386 3.2 Korn shell
Summary: Be careful with `:' command
Message-ID: <1152@vsi.COM>
Date: 19 Jul 89 03:20:03 GMT
References: <14445@bfmny0.UUCP> <1989Jul12.191342.1048@cs.dal.ca> <1792@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM>
Distribution: na
Organization: V-Systems, Inc. -- Santa Ana, CA
Lines: 20

In article <1792@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM>, ned@pebbles.cad.mcc.com (CME Ned Nowotny) writes:
> In fact, one of the most useful things you could do
> with ":" was to comment your shell script since ":" does nothing
> with the arguments (a.k.a.  comment string) that you may provide
> it.

While this is true, it can be misleading.  In particular, the line

	cat file file2 > file3

isn't commented out by prefixing it with a colon.  Cat doesn't run,
but redirection *will* take place and file3 will be truncated.

     Steve

-- 
Stephen J. Friedl / V-Systems, Inc.  /  Santa Ana, CA  / +1 714 545 6442 
3B2-kind-of-guy   / {attmail uunet}!vsi!{bang!}friedl  /  friedl@vsi.com

"Why can't I do pointer multiplication in C?" - Blair Houghton