[Nmh-workers] I'm confused

[norm]

I'm working on the attach, alist, detach, etc. write up. So I'm exploring them
some.

/t/,a is a four line file. So that: from a shell window running bash:

==========

~ cat /t/,a
/home/norm/Downloads/SoundShot.tgz
/home/norm/Downloads/SoundShotA.png
/home/norm/Downloads/SoundShotB1.png
/home/norm/Downloads/SoundShotB2.png
~ file $(< /t/,a)
/home/norm/Downloads/SoundShot.tgz:   gzip compressed data, from Unix, last 
modified: Sat Sep  8 11:03:26 2012
/home/norm/Downloads/SoundShotA.png:  PNG image data, 668 x 723, 8-bit/color 
RGB, non-interlaced
/home/norm/Downloads/SoundShotB1.png: PNG image data, 668 x 723, 8-bit/color 
RGB, non-interlaced
/home/norm/Downloads/SoundShotB2.png: PNG image data, 668 x 723, 8-bit/color 
RGB, non-interlaced

==========

But from whatnow:

==========
What now? attach  $(< /t/,a)
/bin/bash: line 1: /home/norm/Downloads/SoundShotA.png: Permission denied
/bin/bash: line 2: /home/norm/Downloads/SoundShotB1.png: Permission denied
/bin/bash: line 3: /home/norm/Downloads/SoundShotB2.png: Permission denied


==========

My problem is that I'm having a difficult time understanding what
bash constructs are and are not allowed in the arguments to attach etc.

I can, by the way do:

==========

What now?  attach /a/foob/ab$((1+2))

==========

or

What now? attach  $(< /t/,a)

==========

If /t/,a contains only one line.


So clearly quite a few bash constructs are allowed. So, I had thought that
the code somehow invoked bash (or csh or whatever) itself to do the parsing,
but I guess I was wrong.

    Norman Shapiro