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From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: weird csh thing
Message-ID: <1991Jan8.031749.31068@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 8 Jan 91 03:17:49 GMT
References: <BAGCHI.91Jan6000722@snarf.eecs.umich.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 24

In article <BAGCHI.91Jan6000722@snarf.eecs.umich.edu> bagchi@eecs.umich.edu (Ranjan Bagchi) writes:
>anyone care to explain??  (I`m in csh)
>
>$ set p = "w | tail +3 "
>
>shouldn't "$p" have the same effect as "w | tail +3" ?
>
 I suppose someone should point out that, taken literally, "$p" does
have the same effect as "w | tail +3 ".

% set p="w | tail +3 "
% "w | tail +3 "
w | tail +3 : Command not found.
% "$p"
w | tail +3 : Command not found.

 Of course this wasn't what you intended, but it also demonstrates that
quoting does effect the meaning of shell commands.

-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940