Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ncar!gatech!udel!princeton!njsmu!mccc!pjh
From: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Strangeness in shell
Message-ID: <446@mccc.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jul 89 00:26:07 GMT
References: <432@mccc.UUCP> <9700009@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu> <TALE.89Jul22220358@imagine.pawl.rpi.edu>
Reply-To: pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg)
Organization: The College On The Other Side of U. S. Route 1
Lines: 16

In article <TALE.89Jul22220358@imagine.pawl.rpi.edu> tale@pawl.rpi.edu writes:
=Here are some more examples to clear it up a little:
=$ x=*      # x is set to a list of non-dotfiles in the current directory.
=$ x='*'    # x is set to just *
=$ x="*"    # x is still set to just *


Dave has hit it on the nose.  An assignment such as x="*" does NOT
assign "*" to z; it assigns * to x.  When the value of x is retrieved,
the shell sees the metacharacter * and expands it to all non-hidden
filenames in the current directory.  

Thanks to Dave and the kind folks who responded by email.
-- 
Pete Holsberg -- Mercer College -- Trenton, NJ 08690
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