bash question

[bene-Gk2boCrsRs1AfugRpC6u6w at public.gmane.org (Ben Eisenbraun)]

> in my .profile file i had the following line:
>   hst=${HST:0:3}
> i was cited for a login error because of it

What was the error?

It works fine for me on:
GNU bash, version 3.2.17(1)-release (i386-apple-darwin9.0)
GNU bash, version 3.2.39(1)-release (i486-pc-linux-gnu)

-ben

--
if everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.
                                                     <mario andretti>