The Jamfile here has tests for issues relating to this bug report, from the jamming mailing list: [jamming] J= bug? Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 18:43:26 -0700 From: Paul Forgey To: Jamming mailing list (jamming@perforce.com) Is this a bug or am I missing something? The following Jamfile illustrates my question clearly enough. VAR = 1 2 3 4 ; Echo $(VAR:J=.) ; Echo $(VAR[2-]:J=.) ; # the next line seems to evaluate as empty Echo $(VAR[2-3]:J=.) ; # ..but you can see $(VAR[2-3]) isn't empty Echo $(VAR[2-3]) ; The Jamfile here checks several other possible problems as well. It's a bit crude - you'll have to read the output carefully.