Hi, which shell is right? $ cat reldate echo "`cut -d\\\" -f2 reldate.h`" $ cat reldate.h const char *ReleaseDate = "2006-09-08"; $ ksh reldate reldate: no closing quote $ sh reldate 2006-09-08 $ bash reldate 2006-09-08 Hints are welcome... TIA, Jukka -- bashian roulette: $ ((RANDOM%6)) || rm -rf ~