>I'm failing to see how this change could possibly be correct.  Was it
>even tested (with, say, a build of the source tree)?
>As the comments indicate, VAR_KEEP is used when the value of the string
>must be retained, because they're used by the caller.  This is the case
>for, e.g., :U expansion.  Your change will actually cause the string to
>be freed in that case!

	i'll revisit it.  anyway, there's a bug around here that makes a
	pointer into a dangling pointer.

itojun