Isn't killing the feeding process done by SIGPIPE handling? 
$ perl -e ' @a = `cat /etc/passwd | head -3 `; print for @a'
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin

$ ps auxww | fgrep 'cat /etc/passwd'
bobn     26404  0.0  0.0   9376   764 pts/10   S+   13:11   0:00 fgrep
+ --color=auto cat /etc/passwd
$

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--Bob Niederman,

All code given here is UNTESTED unless otherwise stated.

In reply to Re^2: Exiting backticks early by bobn
in thread Exiting backticks early by mdamazon

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