Subject: Re: A shell gotcha
To: None <sjg@frodo.dn.itg.telecom.com.au>
From: Charles M. Hannum <mycroft@ai.mit.edu>
List: current-users
Date: 04/18/1995 00:58:32 
           HOSTNAME=`hostname`
           HOST=${HOSTNAME%%.*}

Hm?  That works for me.  (It wasn't in 1.0, though.)