An odd difference between "cat file" and "cat<file"

Guy Harris guy at rlgvax.UUCP
Wed Apr 18 15:34:50 AEST 1984


     (Note that the shell does not expand command names, either.  How
     would you like to see "ca* /etc/passwd" handled?)

Well, "ca*" would only look in the current directory, but
"/bin/ca* /etc/passwd" might actually work if the first file in "/bin"
beginning with "ca" happened to be "/bin/cat".  In fact, it *does* work
that way, at least with the System III Bourne shell - I tried

	/bin/ca* /etc/passwd

and, by golly, our password file came dribbling out on my terminal!

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy



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