wierd behavior of echo on a Vax

[David L. Brooks]

We've been having some strange problems with logfiles created by scripts,
recently, and i've narrowed it down to this pattern:

echo `some basic command` "some other text string" >> logfile

the command can come before *or* after the text, and it doesn't matter if
the logfile is created via >, appended to, or if the output goes into a
pipe, etc.

the behavior is this:  interspersed between each character in the "text
string" is a rubout, aka /377 character.  this happens only on the Vax
running Ultrix 3.1.  It works fine on our DECStation 3100's running 3.1D.

the work around is to do something like this:

set date=`date`
echo $date "some other relevant text" >> $LOGFILE

commands other than date, such as whoami, exhibit the same results.  has
anyone else run into this?  DEC, any suggestions?

on a final note:  the signature following my address was added by lawyers
(i'm pretty sure not interactively, but can't guarantee that), otherwise we
can't post.  every time i post, i always get at least one humorous comment.
i'm really in a mood for a few good humorous comments right now, so let
those creative juices flow...

dlb
--
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David L. Brooks
Idaho National Engineering Lab.  INTERNET: dob at INEL.GOV
POB 1625 M.S. 1206               Phone: (208) 526-0826
Idaho Falls, Id. 83415           FAX:   (208) 526-1419
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