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From: sfreed@ariel.unm.edu (Steven Freed CIRT)
Newsgroups: comp.unix
Subject: Re: Redirection
Keywords: wc
Message-ID: <2311@megadon.UUCP>
Date: 27 Dec 90 16:44:34 GMT
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>%wc myfile
>     3     6    36   myfile
>
>%wc myfile > myfile
>%cat myfile
>     0     0     0   myfile
>
>How come MYFILE becomes that?

because the original "myfile" gets overwritten by the new "myfile"
(from the redirection) by the shell BEFORE wc is run, therefore,
the only thing wc sees is an empty file.



--

Thanks,
Steve.                    sfreed@ariel.unm.edu