Reading this discussion, I notice a subtlety. If you execute: $ command-A >( command-1) <( command-2 ) $ command-B
when command-B executes, command-2 must have terminated already because command-A wouldn't have seen the EOF from command-2 until command-2 terminated. (OK, I am assuming here that command-A did read its second argument until EOF, and that's not guaranteed.) But there's no guarantee that command-1 has terminated; all that command-B can depend on is that EOF was *sent* to command-1. However, the documentation talks of $! possibly being the PID of command-1 etc., but my (old) manual page doesn't describe how $! could be set to be the PID of command-1, or even how a script could determine the PID of command-1 in order to set $! to that number. (Although it does describe that if $! is the PID of command-1, then "wait without id" will wait for $!.) Dale
