From: "Mark E." <snowball3 AT bigfoot DOT com>
To: "Peter J. Farley III" <pjfarley AT banet DOT net>, djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 23:52:35 -0400
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Subject: Re: Bash 2.04 beta 6a
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> I begin to suspect there may be a lexing error here, where bash thinks 
> the "#" is a comment character.  Could that be the problem?

I think so. The Bash manual says this about comments:

   In a non-interactive shell, or an interactive shell in which the
`interactive_comments' option to the `shopt' builtin is enabled (*note
Bash Builtins::.), a word beginning with `#' causes that word and all
remaining characters on that line to be ignored.  An interactive shell
without the `interactive_comments' option enabled does not allow
comments.  The `interactive_comments' option is on by default in
interactive shells.  *Note Is This Shell Interactive?::, for a
description of what makes a shell interactive.