Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!vsi!friedl
From: friedl@vsi.UUCP (Stephen J. Friedl)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Ksh use (was Re: Should ``csh be part of ...)
Summary: Use of file.{foo,bar} in sh scripts
Message-ID: <686@vsi.UUCP>
Date: 25 May 88 16:04:08 GMT
References: <14528@brl-adm.ARPA>
Organization: V-Systems, Inc. -- Santa Ana, CA
Lines: 20

In article <14528@brl-adm.ARPA>, rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes:
< 
<    In article <2199@quacky.mips.COM> dce@mips.COM (David Elliott) writes:
<    >   Does ksh have anything like {}?  (In case you don't know, "-r1.{2,4}"
<    >   expands to "-r1.2 -r1.4".)
< 
< Bourne shell (and I assume ksh) use {} to denote a list of commands,
< similar to a subshell, but executed in the same shell. Thus, I doubt
< that the pattern generation will ever be implemented unless they can
< find some free meta-characters. A pity, as I am attached to this feature
< as well. I do `mv foo.c{,.old}' etc all the time.

Note that the Sys V Bourne shell (and ksh) only recognizes { and }
specially when used as the first word of a command, when standing
alone, and when not quoted.  This context sensitivity would seem
to leave room for the very helpful file.{foo,bar} notation of csh.

-- 
Steve Friedl    V-Systems, Inc. (714) 545-6442    3B2-kind-of-guy
friedl@vsi.com    {backbones}!vsi.com!friedl   attmail!vsi!friedl