The manual I'm using is here: http://orgmode.org/org.html#Working-With-Source-Code
See item 14.2.8.1 sub-heading: Emacs Lisp evaluation of variables in the sample code, #+begin_src sh :var file-name=(buffer-file-name) :exports both wc -w $file #+end_src shouldn't file-name=(buffer-file-name) be file=(buffer-file-name) --Skip.