
A Unix Quiz (2012) - fanf2
https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2020/01/unix-quiz.html
======
atannen
I can get a bunch right, especially question 48 - that's me. (hi rob) :) Still
hacking after all these years.

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schoen
Wow, I think of myself as very knowledgeable about Unix and its history, and I
_arguably_ got six of these right. It's a pretty tough quiz if you didn't work
at Bell Labs and if you learned Unix after the 1980s.

~~~
jhbadger
Some of them have been immortalized past their time by the fortune (6)
command, though. While I never used the source control system being referred
to in question 1, I remember Ken Thompson's comparison of it to a "roach
motel" trap from a fortune saying.

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jlgaddis
The answers: [https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2020/01/unix-quiz-
answers...](https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2020/01/unix-quiz-answers.html)

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jasoneckert
I'm somewhat disappointed that the list of questions was displayed on the
site, and not as a downloadable file.

Because everything in UNIX is a file ;-)

I'll let myself out now...

~~~
jlgaddis
The questions _were_ provided in a downloadable file:

    
    
      unix-quiz.html
    

Extracting them from there using only (one of) "grep" or "sed" was left as an
exercise for you. I'm somewhat disappointed in your lack of success.

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fsniper
Is the source code motel compiler? Or is it /dev/null? Or something else?
These questions are tough.

~~~
floren
It's SCCS
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Code_Control_System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Code_Control_System))

~~~
fanf2
I have used SCCS in two ways:

(1) first encounter was browsing Kirk McKusick’s CSRG archives of BSD source
code, by which I learned the very basics

(2) close encounter was to uplift a project with nearly 25 years of history
from SCCS to git: [https://www.dns.cam.ac.uk/news/2014-11-27-sccs-to-
git.html](https://www.dns.cam.ac.uk/news/2014-11-27-sccs-to-git.html)

~~~
ridiculous_fish
SCCS still echoes even in clang:
[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34142682/what-is-the-
bac...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34142682/what-is-the-backslash-
percent-escape-in-c)

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noobdood
My tries:

>22\. Who was rabbit!bimmler

User Bimmler on the rabbit machine, maybe Elizabeth (IIRC, from K&R or K&P
book).

>44\. What language preceded C?

B.

>45\. What language preceded B?

BCPL.

>64\. How many different meanings does Unix assign to '.'?

1) Current directory

2) Prefix character for "hidden" file names.

>75\. What does grep stand for?

Globally find Regular Expression and Print.

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teddyh
See also:

    
    
      $ quiz function ed-command

~~~
anthk
attach the word "extra" to the end of the current line?

    
    
        s/$/ extra/p
        What?
    
        s/$/ extra/p
    
        Ahem.

