Given two aliases: $ alias OPEN='{' CLOSE='};'
This works fine: $ { OPEN echo hi; CLOSE } hi And this: $ var=`{ OPEN echo hi; CLOSE }` && echo "$var" hi But this does not: $ var=$({ OPEN echo hi; CLOSE }) && echo "$var" mksh: syntax error: ')' unexpected It works on every other shell, even pdksh. Thanks, - M.