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From: hahn@nas.nasa.gov (Jonathan Hahn)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: "Invalid null command"
Message-ID: <1991Apr2.212348.8565@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 2 Apr 91 21:23:48 GMT
References: <1991Apr2.005620.11434@ico.isc.com>
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Reply-To: hahn@gigantor.nas.nasa.gov (Jonathan Hahn)
Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center
Lines: 34

In article <1991Apr2.005620.11434@ico.isc.com> rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:
>
>Bourne shell users, accustomed to creating or emptying a file with a
>command like:
>	>splot
>are occasionally annoyed to find that csh rejects this syntax with the
>confusing message "Invalid null command".  (It is confusing because there
>is no such thing as a *valid* null command; attempts to find one will only
>end in frustration.)
>
>This can be solved as follows:
>	touch /bin/IEFBR14
>	chmod 755 IEFBR14

>Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870

I realize that some or all of this article may have been intended to be
tongue-in-cheek.  Be that as it may, for those concerned about efficiency
all the methods mentioned involved a lot of overhead (i.e. system calls)
which could be elliminated by using the following alias:

	alias \> 'echo>'

This allows

	>splot

to behave as it does in the Bourne shell, and doesn't require a fork because
"echo" is a csh built-in.

-jonathan hahn
--
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