[gllug] echo

[Steve Nelson]

Hi all,

Just a quickie - I've just discovered (don't laugh!) that 'echo'
behaves as follows:

$ echo beer
beer
$ echo beer*
beer*
$ echo file
file
$ echo file*
file1 file2 file_for_testing

ie if there is a file matching that which I ask the shell to echo, it
tells me those files, rather than echoing file*.

I appreciate that this has to do with shell expansion, such that I can do:

$ echo 'file*'
file*

My question is why this is connected with filenames.  Why does the
shell look for matching filenames?  ie - Why does echolists all files
beginning with file.  The echo(1)  manual page doesn't help.

I'm sure this is blindingly obvious, but I'm curious!

S.
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug