I think merlyn's point is that in the OP, you seem to be claiming that it is using backticks itself which makes the progam faster, whereas he is pointing out that the actual cause is the lack of metacharacters. So if you were to use system instead of backticks, but still without redirection or other metacharacters, you would get the same benefit. Therefore it's not really fair to claim that the backticks made the difference.

In reply to Re^3: I think I just found a good reason to use backticks in a void context. by Errto
in thread I thought I found a good reason to use backticks in a void context, but I was wrong. by OfficeLinebacker

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