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To: Lane <lane@joeandlane.com>
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Lane <lane@joeandlane.com> writes:

> I think the backticks (and shell variables) actually send the output to a 
> pipe, not the screen.

I don't know why you said either part of that.  I didn't imply the
latter and AFAIK the former is untrue (unless you ask the shell to
send their output to a pipe); they "send" their command output
(or variable value) to the shell as it does command and variable
subsitution on your shell command line.  Read "Command Substitution"
in the "sh" manpage.  I suppose there might be pipes involved in the
shell innerds, but it's not useful to think about them.  The output of
the backticks, etc., becomes a part of the post-subsitution command
input to the shell.  The shell might or might not then send some of it
to the screen, or run a command that outputs to the screen, depending
upon what the command is.