Hi I came across a script that did
$ VARIABLE1=value1 $ VARIABLE2=value2 $ for VAR in VARIABLE1 VARIABLE2 > do > echo ${VAR}=${!VAR} > done VARIABLE1=value1 VARIABLE2=value2 I was unfamiliar with ${!VAR}. As far as I can tell, it's not documented in the man page or the info pages. I assume it was imported from Korn Shell http://www.research.att.com/sw/download/man/man1/ksh.html ${!vname } Expands to the name of the variable referred to by vname. This will be vname except when vname is a name reference.