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From: jc@piaget.UUCP (John Cornelius)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: ":" as a csh command
Message-ID: <148@piaget.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Dec-86 10:29:54 EST
Article-I.D.: piaget.148
Posted: Tue Dec 23 10:29:54 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Dec-86 22:40:37 EST
References: <666@cullvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: jc@piaget.UUCP (John Cornelius, System Manager)
Organization: International Widget
Lines: 19

In article <666@cullvax.UUCP> drw@cullvax.UUCP (Dale Worley) writes:
>What does the ':' command to csh do?  When I type
>	:
>or	...
>	...
>csh doesn't seem to do anything, but if I type
>	: a
>it says ":: Too many arguments".

At least one of the functions performed by ':' is to invoke sh to
interpret the rest of the file.

If the first line of a command file is an unadorned ':' character,
csh does not interpret it but invokes sh with the balance of the file
used as input.

-- 
John Cornelius
(...!sdcsvax!piaget!jc)