On 2002-05-30 at 16:37 +0400, Borsenkow Andrej wrote:
> IIRC bash runs right part of every pipe in subshell. We run left pipe.
> This makes it possible to do something like
> 
> foo | read FOO_RESULT
> 
> that assigns return value of foo to FOO_RESULT. It does not work in bash.
> Just how useful (often used) this feature is is different qustion :-)

Useful, and I use it more often than I'd like, given the sort of things
I end up having to use it for -- killing recalcitrant processes.

Constructs for getting PID listings and storing them in an array, for
later iteration, etc.

Since my employer doesn't have zsh installed by default, except on
machines installed within the last few months (*ahem* guess who wrote
the new installation procedure?), I often end up having to move to Perl.

Some tasks _can_ be done in bash, messing around with extra subshells,
but it gets grotty fast.

zsh keeping the RHS as the parent lets me do a lot of sysadmin tasks
more fluently than using bash or dropping to Perl.
-- 
Compounding the problem are people who insist on confusing "problems with
executable MIME attachments" with "problems with all MIME attachments because
one vendor ships a product that will execute anything that resembles ones and
zeros more than my goldfish does".  -- Valdis Kletnieks