Question about '<<'
Jerry Nowlin
nowlin at ihu1e.UUCP
Sat Aug 25 05:24:50 AEST 1984
.
>> This is the line:
>>
>> cat >foo.h<<'Funky!Stuff'
>>
>> What the heck does this mean ?
> UN*X is a usable system. Therefore it is complicated (perhaps more
> visibly than need be...). Therefore there are and always will be things
> that seem new and arcane. If everyone who wondered about something of
> this nature asked about it in public -- can you imagine the glut that
> would ensue? (Maybe it partly already has, but anyway...)
>
> Moral: Please apply a bit of common sense and research. In this case
> you might say to yourself, "Looks like something the shell handles.
> Hmmm... Let's grep /usr/man/cat1/sh.1 for '<<'." Do that, and you will
> find out all about "here" documents.
>
> Please don't take this as a personal insult. I'm using your question as
> an example. Please, people, read the manuals, when they exist!
>
> Alan Silverstein, hpfcla!ajs
Alan,
You sound like the kind of asshole I had to put up with when I first
started to learn UNIX. His favorite phrase was "read the documentation". On
second thought, he wouldn't even read an article asking for help.
I prefer UNIX to any other operating system I've used and I've used a
few, but I'd have to say as far as documentation goes it's by far the worst
when you're trying to find information on something that you aren't already
familiar with. It's worse than using a dictionary to look up a word you don't
know how to spell.
Unless you're afraid that imparting some of your knowledge to others will
jeopardize your job (they might find out how easy it really is) why don't you
loosen up and help out. Not all of us can afford the time to read Section 1.0
cover to cover. Not everyone knows where they keep the on-line documentation,
(I've worked in places where there wasn't any) and if they knew where it was
how many would know to grep "/usr/man/cat1/sh.1" or "/usr/man/u_man/man1/sh.1"
or whatever the local version is called? I appreciate the fact that you were
trying to help with your article but the parting shot was too much. When
someone actually wants to know how something works instead of just how to use
it don't discourage them by only pointing at "the manuals".
Jerry Nowlin
ihnp4!ihu1e!nowlin
More information about the Comp.sources.unix
mailing list