Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!purdue!umd5!mimsy!chris From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: what's the use of "{ list }" in /bin/sh? Message-ID: <12334@mimsy.UUCP> Date: 6 Jul 88 18:46:43 GMT References: <23590@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA> <3305@palo-alto.DEC.COM> Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742 Lines: 20 In article <3305@palo-alto.DEC.COM> vixie@palo-alto.DEC.COM (Paul Vixie) writes various examples (deleted), then: >Summary: {list} is useful if you go southpaw with it. Other than >that it seems useless and I can't imagine why it exists. Actually, it has one more use: while { setup; test } do ... or any other place where a compound statement is needed and only a single statement is allowed. (while and until are about it!) You could write while (setup; test) do ... but that invokes an extra fork. -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris