title: Why escape the first character of eval in .profile script?
body: <p>I've installed anaconda on a mac and I noticed that it appends the following to my .profile:</p>
  
  <pre><code># added by Anaconda3 5.3.1 installer
  # &gt;&gt;&gt; conda init &gt;&gt;&gt;
  # !! Contents within this block are managed by 'conda init' !!
  __conda_setup="$(CONDA_REPORT_ERRORS=false '/anaconda3/bin/conda' shell.bash hook 2&gt; /dev/null)"
  if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
      \eval "$__conda_setup"
  else
      if [ -f "/anaconda3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh" ]; then
          . "/anaconda3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh"
          CONDA_CHANGEPS1=false conda activate base
      else
          \export PATH="/anaconda3/bin:$PATH"
      fi
  fi
  unset __conda_setup
  # &lt;&lt;&lt; conda init &lt;&lt;&lt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am a bit perplexed by the escaping of the "\eval" and "\export" lines. What is the purpose of this? I suspect it has something to do with portability, but I have never seen this before.</p>
  
  <p>Can someone explain what purpose it serves?</p>