Stupid Unix Tricks

(idea) by xunker (1.5 mon) Mon Jul 31 2000 at 18:29:07

Here's my contribution; one I just made right this second - done in tcsh under FreeBSD, but should work on most shells:

wall "anything. Walls don't have eyes."

Returns: wall: can't read anything. Walls don't have eyes.

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(idea) by jes04 (4.6 mon) Sun Oct 01 2000 at 22:42:13
Ok, this is not exactly in the same vein as the above stupid tricks, but it's cool nonethless.

Try this at a shell prompt: 
bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
Ok, you say. But what does it do?

Well, lessee...it defines ':' as a function which pipes itself to itself in the background, and then calls itself. Nifty eh? I don't recommend trying this with any shell other than bash, as that's the only one I've tried it on. YMMV. Unpredictable results would not be unexpected.
Do not do this. I only say this because I have already gotten a nasty Chatterbox message saying that it broke someone's server. It should go without saying never to type in random shit you see on websites. Especially as root.
User Testimonials:
I got this in the catbox today. Apparently, this little ditty is now a Stupid Cross-Platform Trick! 

So you say not to type in your Stupid Unix Trick ... pah!
I think... so I type it in.... erm... whoops!
Just to let you know it well and truly fubars Win2K
with bash on cygwin also :o)... heh! Nice one.
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