idallen@watmath.UUCP (07/18/84)
The first thing on a command line is expected to be a command word to CSH.
It is the same sort of word as:
echo hi >`expression`
CSH expects this word not to contain blanks; you can successfully say:
`echo date`
but not:
`echo echo hi`
This may be correct, since one wonders what:
`expression` arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4
should do. If <expression> expanded to multiple words, the supposed
args would not be the first ones passed to the command, just as:
echo hi >`expression`
would not do what you expect if <expression> expanded to multiple
words, only the first of which was taken as the file name for redirection.
It's a case of the shell being conservative about peculiar constructions.
If you tell CSH to re-parse the stuff coming in from `...`, imbedded
blanks expand and your example works:
eval `grep bleen /etc/rc`
--
-IAN! (Ian! D. Allen) University of Waterloo