bash question

[Peter L. Peres]

I was trying to use ${foo:-1:2} in bash but it does not work (it is 
supposed to extract the last 2 chars in $foo. However ${foo:${#foo}-2:2} 
works as expected.

The questions:

- does it also work in a newer bash (with ${#}) ?
- is this a known problem or did I just find it ? Note that I am using a 
newer bash:

GNU bash, version 2.05b.0(1)-release

but the manual page I just referenced is from an older one (the new one 
does not have the manpage installed - yet).

Peter

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