In article <7277 at cbnewsh.ATT.COM> ijk at cbnewsh.ATT.COM (ihor.j.kinal) writes: > awk "BEGIN { print \"'\" } " Congratulations for testing your solution before posting it, but it only works under sh. In contrast, awk 'BEGIN { print "'\''" } ' works under sh and csh. (More complicated? Give me a break.) ---Dan