Avoid escaping inside here documents
The delimiter can be quoted (single or double) to disable parameter, command
and arithmetic expansion inside the here document:
$ cat <<__EOT
echo $(echo foo)
__EOT
echo foo
$ cat <<'__EOT'
echo $(echo foo)
__EOT
echo $(echo foo)
Do the latter to be able to write the here document/file content exactly as
it would end up in output/rc.firsttime, making it easier to read.
To be more consistent and explicit, switch the remaining here documents with
pure plain text (no shell expansion, etc.) to quoted delimiters.
OK millert