Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Re: sorting and reversing lines of a file
Message-ID: <9770@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 2 Mar 89 15:16:15 GMT
References: <1774@dlvax2.datlog.co.uk> <14660007@hpsal2.HP.COM>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 7

In article <14660007@hpsal2.HP.COM> morrell@hpsal2.HP.COM (Michael Morrell) writes:
>...  Since the shell is truncating file2 before cat is
>invoked, you need a smarter shell, not a smarter cat, to avoid this problem.

"Smartness" has nothing to do with it; "> file2" is DEFINED to truncate
(i.e. overwrite) an existing file.  The shell is doing exactly what it's
told.  The problem lies in the user's brain somewhere...