Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!ames!cit-vax!news From: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Usenet netnews) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Pattern Matching & documentation Message-ID: <1366@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> Date: Wed, 17-Dec-86 21:22:45 EST Article-I.D.: cit-vax.1366 Posted: Wed Dec 17 21:22:45 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 18-Dec-86 05:44:04 EST References: <954@blia.BLI.COM> <1731@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: tim@tomcat.UUCP (Tim Kay) Organization: California Institute of Technology Lines: 68 Organization : California Institute of Technology Keywords: shell scripts From: tim@tomcat.Caltech.Edu (Tim Kay) Path: tomcat!tim mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (Don't have strength to leave) Meyer) writes: >vanam@pttesac.UUCP (-Root Admin-) writes: >>mwm@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike (Don't have strength to leave) Meyer) writes: >>>cc1@locus.ucla.edu (Michael Gersten) writes: >>>>As for shell scripts, I'm not sure I understand the question/complaint. >>>Consider a shell script: >>> for i in $* >>> do >>> echo $i >>> done >>>which acts like echo, but puts each word on a seperate line. Now, try >>>convincing it to echo a "*". Notice that your quoting mechanisms don't >>>work right. >> >>Maybe I don't understand exactly what you're trying to do, but it seems >>to work just fine here (I'm running on Sys V release 2 unix) if I type >>'echo "*"', the system echoes an asterisk. All I have to do is quote it. > >You're right, you don't understand what I'm trying to do. Watch: > [demonstration deleted] But, if you write the lecho shell script as for i in "$@" do echo "$i" done it does the following tomcat% lecho tomcat% lecho hello, world hello, world tomcat% lecho * 3d 640k int.pas lecho printer shell t.pas tex typescript wow tomcat% lecho \* * tomcat% lecho "*" * So, the quoting mechanism under Unix *works*. It isn't all that difficult to prove (literally) that you can do anything you want. NEVERTHELESS. I don't like nor remember nor understand all the features of the quoting mechanism under Unix, and I think that each program should expand its own arguments. A shell should be kept very small. Timothy L. Kay tim@csvax.caltech.edu Department of Computer Science Caltech, 256-80 Pasadena, CA 91125