Unadvertised sh(1) feature?

[utzoo!decvax!genrad!linus!allegra!eagle!mhtsa!alice!npoiv!houxm!pgf]

Relay-Version:version B 3/9/83; site alice.UUCP
Message-ID:<400 at houxm.UUCP>
Date:Wed, 11-May-83 14:18:49 EDT


A while ago I found this tidbit in the function "inout()" (which processes
the IO redirection syntax) in cmd.c in the Bourne shell:

	    case '<':
		IF (c=nextc(0))=='&'
		THEN	iof |= IOMOV;
		ELIF c=='>'
		/*	<> is open for read and write	*/
		/*	unadvertised feature		*/
		THEN	iof |= IORDW;
		ELSE	peekc=c|MARK;
		FI
		break;

If this is an unadvertised feature, is it useful?  What meaning, for instance,
would the following command have? :
	a.out <> data.file

Just curious.				Paul Fox houxm!pgf