Re: About "program" and "command"

[Yuri Khan]

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 7:32 PM, Xue Fuqiao <xfq.free@gmail.com> wrote:
> The doc string of `call-process' says:
>
>   Call PROGRAM synchronously in separate process.
>
> The doc string of `call-process-shell-command' says:
>
>   Execute the shell command COMMAND synchronously in separate process.
>
> What's the different of these two functions?  In other words, what's the
> difference of "program" and "command" here?

I would expect that “program” refers to only the binary being invoked,
without its command-line arguments; while “command” refers to the
whole command including the binary and the arguments, and, with the
explicit qualification as a “shell command”, probably also with such
shell-specific constructs as environment variables, input/output
redirection, piping, etc.

Of course, my expectations could be completely wrong.