shell variable parsing in a file?

[Jason Price <gt5076c@cad.gatech.edu>]

I guess...

What I'd like to do is create a file like so:

user.$USER.group.$GROUP

and several such lines.  Some just strait text, some with shell variables
interspersed.

I thought that:

echo "`cat datafile`"

would do the interpretation, but it didn't.  

Is there a way that I can do this?

What I'm trying to do is set up a script that will querry for group name,
and some other data, and then set up some tables for them to use under
mySQL.  If there is an easier way to do this, let me know, as a DBA, I am
not.  (groups would come in and out, and this would set up the base set of
tables.  We're coding up a nicer UI for them to modify and extend the
tables, but the base creation would be done at the begining of the term by
some administrator.)

Thanks;
Jason

(PS: I tried to send this to zsh-users@sunsite.auc.dk, but that bounced.
I'm probably braindead though and forgot what the real address was/is)

-- 
"Do not confuse Repentance with Disgust: for one comes from the Landlord,
and the other is from the Enemy." --C.S. Lewis _The_Pilgrim's_Regress_
Jason Price	jprice@gatech.edu
Christian, Catholic, Sysadmin, Linux installer, Theta Xi, Atlanta-TEC.