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From: sadkins@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Scott W. Adkins)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Bourne to read?
Keywords: Bourne read
Message-ID: <3033@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU>
Date: 1 Mar 91 15:04:56 GMT
References: <1991Feb28.160948.24987@hoss.unl.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Ohio University CS Dept., Athens
Lines: 23

In article <1991Feb28.160948.24987@hoss.unl.edu> mosemann@sardion.unl.edu (Russell Mosemann) writes:
>
>   In the Bourne shell, why does this not work
>
>      echo words | read W
>
>   but this does (if I put the words in the file)
>
>      read W < file

Well, it could be a matter of where things are coming from and where they are
going to.  In the first case, echo words is sending the stuff to stdout, not
stdin.  The read W is waiting for input from stdin, not stdout.  Result?  The
words will be echoed to the screen and then the script will wait for keyboard
input.

In the second example, the '<' symbol literally means redirect the output of
this file to this other file.  In other words, file is redirected to stdin
of read W.  I hope this helps.  If I am wrong on these accounts, I will be
watching for the correct solution.

Scott Adkins
sadkins@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu