You are right. Without quotes it works: [[ abc =~ a.*c ]] && echo Yes Yes I was sure I tried that. Sorry. Thanks a lot, Boris -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/