On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 08:02:17AM -0400, Steven W. Orr wrote: > Is there a difference between > > while read line < file > do > stuff > done > > vs > > while read line > do > stuff > done < file
Yes. It's a huge difference. In the first one, the file is re-opened by read every time through the loop, meaning you will keep reading the first line of it over and over. In the second one, the file is opened once, and the read command gets the first line, then the second line, etc.
