*BSD News Article 82813


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From: Ed Symanzik <zik@pilot.msu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: cat foo* > foo.bar    causes infinite loop
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 13:23:50 -0500
Organization: Michigan State University
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If I create three files foo1, foo2, and foo3 then run the command

 cat foo* > foo.bar

in csh I get an infinite loop (at least until the partition fills up).
Seems to me that '*' should be evaluated before new files are created.
I have seen systems that don't behave this way give errors similar to
"can't open foo.bar for both input and output".