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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: The bourne shell again ( summary and question )
Message-ID: <5405@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Apr-85 17:58:23 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5405
Posted: Tue Apr  2 17:58:23 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Apr-85 17:58:23 EST
References: <75@cithep.UucP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 18

> 	number=one
> 	while something
> 	do
> 		number=two
> 	done < TheLarch
> 
> Why is the body of the loop done in a subshell?  Could it
> not use dup() to save the current stdin, and put it back after
> the loop?  This is crtainly what I expected.

The quick answer is, it should.  If you interpose a shell function
(only found in more recent Bourne shells) between the loop and the
redirection, it does it right.  When redirection of builtin commands
was added to the shell -- post-V7 -- all the machinery that would be
needed was added.  It just hasn't been applied to this case yet.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry