THANK YOU, Dan & Randy, for your responses.
 
Randy Medd <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> If the termination string is quoted,
> the shell won't expand apparent variable references during the cat
> operation.
 
In fact, that is why I was using this in the original problem (as opposed
to the simplified version that I posted here).
 
It's interesting that the termination string worked the same on multiple
platforms for both of you, whereas I get the following:
 
On SunOS 4.1.3, I get
 
{netcom5:6} cat <<'eof' >dummyfile
testing
'eof'
{netcom5:7} cat dummyfile
testing
{netcom5:8}
 
And on MachTen, I get
 
gcMac% cat <<'eof' >dummyfile
testing
'eof'
gcMac% cat dummyfile
testing
gcMac%
 
Both of these are in the C shell on BSD-based machines. (Unfortunately, I
have to be home to enter other test cases.) Also, the book "Teach Yourself
Unix in a Week" by Dave Taylor specifies this functionality. The POSIX
Programmer's Guide that I have appears to cover only function calls, not
differences in the various commands.
 
Thanks for your help!
 
--Glenn Cole
  Software al dente, Inc.
  [log in to unmask]