On Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 3:48 PM Craig H Maynard <chmayn...@me.com> wrote:
> Hi, > > In section 3.5.4 "Command Substitution", the following sentence may have a > typo: > > > The command substitution $(cat file) can be replaced by the equivalent > but faster $(< file). > > > My proposed change: > > > The command substitution $(cat file) can be replaced by the equivalent > but faster <(cat file). > > > If the manual is correct and I misunderstood something, please let me know. > Hi Craig, <(cat file) and $(cat file) are not equivalent constructs. The former will expand to a file name (e.g. "/dev/fd/63"), whereas the latter will expand to the contents of the file. In the case of $(cat file) and $(< file), they are equivalent, except that in the second case there's no external command ("cat"), and instead Bash reads the file and does the expansion itself.