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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: shell globbing universal ?????
Message-ID: <6793@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 4-Dec-87 21:00:45 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.6793
Posted: Fri Dec  4 21:00:45 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Dec-87 06:27:16 EST
References: <14107@oddjob.UChicago.EDU>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) )
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 25

In article <14107@oddjob.UChicago.EDU> matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Java Man) writes:
>o 204% dd if=g*
>o 205% set if=g*

Both of these, the "dd" utility and the Cshell's brain-damaged "set"
syntax, exhibit irregularities.

"dd" is one of the few commands that was deliberately designed to have
a stupid IBMish syntax rather than fit the general UNIX command model.
There was no filename starting "if=g" so the glob failed.  "dd" fits
the model of a command that insists on doing its own parsing instead
of letting the shell take care of it, and it happens to have no builtin
globbing. It should have been designed to accept file arguments like
	dd -i in_file -o out_file
which would fit the generally accepted shell interface.

The Cshell "set" built-in uses the "=" as a delimiter, so it treated
the stuff to the right of the "=" as through it had been preceded by
a space under normal argument handling, and was able to glob it.  If
the Cshell builtin had been designed to be invoked like
	setvar if g*
it would have made more sense.

All this shows is that "dd" ought to be fixed and the Cshell should
be stamped out..