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From: Duncan Sargeant <dunc@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
Message-Id: <199610240841.QAA00731@mermaid.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Mailpath notification message
To: pws@ifh.de (Peter Stephenson)
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 16:41:16 +0800 (WST)
Cc: zsh-users@math.gatech.edu, rusty@panix.com
In-Reply-To: <199610240735.JAA27921@hydra.ifh.de> from "Peter Stephenson" at Oct 24, 96 09:35:22 am
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Peter Stephenson scribbled:
> 
> Rusty Hoover wrote:
> > Shouldn't this line:
> > 
> > 	export MAILPATH="~/.mailspool/rusty:~/Mail/z?Zsh mail."
> > 
> > 			in my .zshenv give me, whenever i return to my
> > command-line prompt, the message: "Zsh mail." ?
> > 
> > It doesn't. What am i doing wrong? Do i need spaces around the question
> > mark?
> 
> The mistake is that the ~'s are quoted, so don't expand to your home
> directory: try `echo ~ "~"' and you will see what I mean.  You need
> something like:
> 
> export MAILPATH=~/.mailspool/rusty:~/Mail/z'?Zsh mail.'
> 
> (zsh does know about assignments and colons when expanding ~'s).  This
> is partly my fault:  I had something in the FAQ when the shell was
> rationalised to quote tildes in this sort of place, but deleted it
> when I thought it was no longer necessary.
> 

I usually overcome this problem by using $HOME in my scripts.  I
think this is a better way because you can put it in the middle of
double-quote quoted strings (but not single quotes.)

export MAILPATH="$HOME/mailspool/rusty:$HOME/Mail/z?Zsh mail."

IMHO its a good habit to get into.

better understand parameter expansion??

echo $HOME "$HOME" '$HOME' ~ "~" '~'

/home/wheel/dunc /home/wheel/dunc $HOME /home/wheel/dunc ~ ~


PS: what was the rationale behind quoting tildes?  Not critising
    it, but this means it isn't a short parameter ... so what is
    it?


cheers,

dunc

-- 
Duncan Sargeant, http://www.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/~dunc/
D2: "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, D1?"
D1: "I think I am, D2!"
D1 and D2: "Free Tibet!"                    -- "Dalai Lamas in Pyjamas", GNW.