See: $ sleep 20 ^Z [1]+ Stopped sleep 20 $ $ auto_resume= sleep sleep: missing operand Try 'sleep --help' for more information. $ $ echo $(auto_resume= sleep) bash: fg: no current jobs
$ `auto_resume= sleep' has the same effect as `auto_resume= command sleep' in a command substitution but I think it shouldn't; I'd expect a command to behave the same way both inside and outside `$(...)'. This is reproducible on 5.1.0(14)-beta too. Oğuz