[net.unix] Summary of "That Crazy Caret" explanations

mlip@NADC.ARPA (09/10/84)

[In tenebris,i!] (for Latin freaks)


A hearty thanks to all who explained the problem of the "That Crazy Caret".
The explanation was that the caret ('^') is a synonym for the 
vertical bar or pipe symbol ('|').  Apparently, this equivalence 
is preserved for upward compatibility.  Previous version of UNIX
treated the caret as the piping symbol.  This was probably due to
the unavailability of the vertical bar on many older keyboards.
However, I could not find any reference to the caret as an alternate 
symbol for piping in the 4.1 BSD documentation.


Thanks
mlip@nadc

reschly@BRL-AOS.ARPA (09/10/84)

From:      Robert J Reschly Jr <reschly@BRL-AOS.ARPA>

Under the 4.2 unix used on this system, the 'sh' man page makes a reference
to the caret.

Excerpt follows:

--------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
     _S_h is a command programming language that executes commands
     read from a terminal or a file.  See _I_n_v_o_c_a_t_i_o_n below for
     the meaning of arguments to the shell.

     Commands.
	.
	.
	.

     A _p_i_p_e_l_i_n_e is a sequence of one or more _c_o_m_m_a_n_d_s separated
     by | (or, for historical compatibility, by ^).  The standard
     output of each command but the last is connected by a
     _p_i_p_e(2) to the standard input of the next command.  Each
     command is run as a separate process; the shell waits for
     the last command to terminate.

	.
	.
	.
				Later,
				    Bob

gwyn@BRL-VLD.ARPA (09/10/84)

From:      Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn@BRL-VLD.ARPA>

That's a bit unfair, since on BRL UNIX systems we use the UNIX System
V Bourne shell and its corresponding manual page.  On the other hand,
I recommend that everyone do the same..