Re: a=if; $a true; then ...

[Paul Jarc]

Dan Jacobson <jidanni@dman.ddts.net> wrote:
> Let's say that bash magically started supporting this style of call
> for builtins, just as it works fine for non builtins:
>
> $ a='if true;then echo ooo;fi' b=who
> $ $a
> bash: if: command not found

This must not do what you want; the metacharacters such as semicolon
are not supposed to be special when part of an expanded value.  I'm
not sure about the other example in your Subject line, but you could
check the standard at <URL:http://www.opengroup.org/>.


paul