One more comment ...

Jon LaBadie wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 19, 2003 at 12:17:14PM +0200, Simon Frettloeh wrote:
> 
>>   ===snip====================
>>   REALTAR=/bin/tar
>>   exec yourprebackupcommand
>>   exec $REALTAR "$@"
>>   exec yourpostbackupcommand
>>   ===snap====================
>>   For a more complex but also more flexible script look at the end of my 
>>   mail. I hope this one's correct. I'm not so good in shell programming,
> 
> 
> Just one comment for future reference.
> 
> "exec"  has a very specific meaning in shell programming and is generally
> a reserved word in the shell programming languages.  That makes its use
> inappropriate in the above snippet.  Perhaps you mean "execute" which
> is not a special word will convey the notion of "fork off a child process
> to do these activities and return to the parent when completed to do the
> next command in the shell script".  In contrast "exec" means to replace
> the shell running the script with whatever you are "exec'ing".  After that
> completes there is nothing to "return to", the shell having been replaced,
> and thus there is no possibility of executing the next command in the script.
>