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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!alice!rabbit!mjs
From: mjs@rabbit.UUCP (M. J. Shannon, Jr.)
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Re: That Crazy Caret
Message-ID: <3136@rabbit.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Sep-84 09:09:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: rabbit.3136
Posted: Wed Sep 12 09:09:31 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Sep-84 07:11:57 EDT
References: <13244@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 10

The caret (`^') is a synonym for the vertical bar (`|'), and was the
pipe metacharacter in earlier shells.  Why, you ask?  Well, many
keyboards in those days didn't require the typist to shift to get to
the `^', and that made it more convenient to use the caret than the
vertical bar.  I don't know about the System V shell, but the UNIX
Eight Edition shell treats `^' as a non-special character.
-- 
	Marty Shannon
UUCP:	{alice,rabbit,research}!mjs
Phone:	201-582-3199