True and false

Tony Luck aegl at root44.UUCP
Thu Nov 21 21:53:58 AEST 1985


I only have version 1.3 of /bin/true ... but I can't see any bugs in it.
Altogether it is 747 bytes long - most of this is the "THIS IS UNPUBLISHED
PROPRIETRY SOURCE CODE OF AT&T ..." heading - followed by the version
number followed by the actual code to do nothing (successfully) - which
is of course nothing as the shell will just "exit(0)" when it reaches
end of file. On Version 6 true just used to be an empty file - presumably
this was the base version. - Then someone must have added a version number
(probably 1.1 - but maybe 1.2) then the copyright notice must have been
added (up to 1.3) - perhaps there is a a typo in this notice - or perhaps
the Lawyers decided that a mere 747 bytes wasn't enough of a warning to
potential software pirates and have added dire threats and warnings of
what will happen to anyone who would dare to copy such a complex utility!

Tony Luck    mcvax!ukc!root44!aegl



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