[CentOS-docs] Suggestions on "I Need the Kernel Source" Wiki pages

[Akemi Yagi]

On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 9:03 PM, Scott Robbins <scottro at nyc.rr.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 08:39:46PM -0700, Akemi Yagi wrote:

>> They are "back ticks" :-)  This is one of those things that might be
>> regarded as Unix/Linux basics (?).  It feeds the output of the command
>> inside the ticks to the shell.  In your case, `uname -m` produces i686
>> which then will be used as the parameter for the --target= option.
>
> This confuses many newcomers (and old timers with bad vision if they're
> not paying attention.)
>
> Is there any merit to substituting that with $().  (To the OP, original
> poster, both the back ticks, to the left of the numeral 1 on a QWERTY
> keyboard and putting something inside $(), e.g., $(uname -m) mean to
> execute a command.
>
> I write many pages for the beginner.  As that was a common error when
> people would read my pages, I then began making a point of explaining
> what they were.  Finally, I decided that simply using $() was easier
> than adding a sentence or two specifying that those were backticks.  :)

Scott,

There is one (minor) problem with using the $() notation.  That is, it
does not work in *cough* csh.  I said "minor" because (t)csh users are
minority.  Anyway, back ticks work regardless of the shell used.

Akemi
P.S. Please do not start the shell war (or c-shell bashing).  OK, Evolution?