Your pipe is causing a problem. What are you attempting to do here? On Tue, 3 May 2005 18:15:36 -0400 (EDT) "John Wells" <jb at sourceillustrated.com> wrote: > #!/bin/bash > function getRC > { > RC="123" > } > > getRC \ > | while read line > do > echo "456" > done > > echo "RC: $RC"