Skip to content

XW

Stupid Shell Tricks

Note that the ‘%’ prompt indicates that the command should be issued from the C shell, and the ‘$’ prompt indicates the Bourne shell.

% rm meese-ethics
rm: meese-ethics nonexistent
% "How would you rate Reagan's incompetence?
Unmatched ".
% [Where is Jimmy Hoffa?
Missing ].
% If I had a ( for every $ Congress spent, what would I have?
Too many ('s.
% make love
Make:  Don't know how to make love.  Stop.
% sleep with me
bad character
% got a light?
No match.
% man: why did you get a divorce?
man:: Too many arguments.
% ^What is saccharine?
Bad substitute.
% \(-
(-: Command not found.
% sh
$ PATH=pretending! /usr/ucb/which sense
no sense in pretending!
$ drink < bottle; opener
bottle: cannot open
opener: not found
$ mkdir matter; cat > matter
matter: cannot create