The bourne shell again ( summary and question )

[Henry Spencer]

> 	number=one
> 	while something
> 	do
> 		number=two
> 	done < TheLarch
> 
> Why is the body of the loop done in a subshell?  Could it
> not use dup() to save the current stdin, and put it back after
> the loop?  This is crtainly what I expected.

The quick answer is, it should.  If you interpose a shell function
(only found in more recent Bourne shells) between the loop and the
redirection, it does it right.  When redirection of builtin commands
was added to the shell -- post-V7 -- all the machinery that would be
needed was added.  It just hasn't been applied to this case yet.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry