On Sat, Aug 02, 2003 at 08:49:36PM +0300, Shaul Karl wrote:
> According to my understanding of the manual page,
>
> $ MY_ENV=abc printf "${MY_ENV}\n"
>
> Should have print abc. But it does not:
>
> $ MY_ENV=abc printf "${MY_ENV}\n"
>
> What am I missing?
The "MY_ENV=abc printf" syntax sets the environment variable for the
printf subprocess. And, in fact, when printf runs, MY_ENV is truly set
to abc. However, the "${MY_ENV}\n" is expanded *before* printf is
executed, and since MY_ENV is not set in the existing shell, the
expansion results in an empty string. The printf command doesn't even
see MY_ENV in its arguments, all it sees is a single argument that looks
like ``\n''.
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Dave Carrigan
Seattle, WA, USA
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