The back quotes are a dynamic substitution. As your script is running, anything between backquotes is run as a command. The output of which is inserted at the point point where the backquotes are.
So it took all the output from cat'ting your file and added it as parameters onto the end of the du command. For instance you could do something like: echo "Hello There Mike, the date is `date` and you are late for your wedding" The output from date would be inserted where the backquote is. After bash processes the backquotes the lien will be executed as: echo "Hello There Mike, the date is Tue May 4 15:49:56 MDT 2004 and you are late for your wedding" And the output would be of course: Hello There Mike, the date is Tue May 4 15:49:56 MDT 2004 and you are late for your wedding The contents of the backquotes are excuted everytime the shell script executes that line (So is done on the fly). Mike On Tue, 2004-05-04 at 15:33, Cory Syvenky wrote: > du -Sach `cat ~/foldersToDelete` was the winner. > > Thanks alot Stephen and Mike for your help. > > So what exactly do the back-quotes do, I've never seen any notation like > that? > > cS -- Mike Petch CApp::Sysware Consulting Ltd. Suite 1002,1140-15th Ave SW. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. T2R 1K6. (403)804-5700. _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
