Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!aplcen!wb3ffv!idsssd!bruce
From: bruce@idsssd.UUCP (Bruce T. Harvey)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: UNIX prompts (-ksh)
Summary: y
Message-ID: <540@idsssd.UUCP>
Date: 28 Mar 89 17:30:48 GMT
References: <18805@adm.BRL.MIL> <11080@well.UUCP> <2391@buengc.BU.EDU> <4549@vpk4.UUCP>
Organization: In*sight Distribution Systems, Hunt Valley, MD
Lines: 28

In article <4549@vpk4.UUCP>, hjespers@vpk4.UUCP (Hans Jespersen) writes:
> In article <2391@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) writes:
> >In article <11080@well.UUCP> tneff@well.UUCP (Tom Neff) writes:
> >>	export PS1='$PWD> '

> Absolutely correct. I think Tom ment
> 	export PS1=`$PWD> `

Nope.  Tom meant '$PWD' when he said it.  The reason for the single quotes
is so that the shell where the definition is being made does not interpret
$PWD.  If it did, the current working directory of _that_shell_ would
_always_ display.  By quoting it, four characters ($, P, W, and D) are
exported and not interpreted by ksh _until_displayed_.  I don't think sh-
does any interpretation of displayed variables in this manner, which is
why it doesn't work this way using sh-.

If you use back-quotes, as in above, you end up trying to execute a
directory.

(" ... Hmm.  I wonder if that's why directories must be x-ecutable to be
       used ...")


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