UNIX Consultant
Published on Thu 07 October 1999
Customer calls a UNIX consultant with a question.
Customer: What is the command that will tell me the revision code of a program?
UNIX consultant: Yes, that's correct.
Customer: No, what is it?
UNIX consultant: Yes.
Customer: So, which is the one?
UNIX consultant: No. 'which' is used to find the program.
Customer: Stop this. Who are you?
UNIX consultant: Use 'who am i' not 'who r yoo'. You can also 'finger yoo' to get information about yoo.
Customer: All I want to know is what finds the revision code.
UNIX consultant: Use 'what'.
Customer: That's what I am trying to find out. Isn't that true?
UNIX consultant: No. 'true' gives you 0.
Customer: Which one?
UNIX consultant: 'true' gives you 0. 'which programname'.
Customer: Let's get back to my problem. What program? How do I find it?
UNIX consultant: Type 'find / -name it -print' to find 'it'. Type 'what program' to get the revision code.
Customer: I want to find the revision code.
UNIX consultant: You can't 'find revisioncode', you must use 'what program'.
Customer: Which command will do what I need?
UNIX consultant: No. 'which command' will find 'command'.
Customer: I think I understand. Let me write that.
UNIX consultant: You can 'write that' only if 'that' is a user on your system.
Customer: Write what?
UNIX consultant: No. 'write that'. 'what program'.
Customer: Cut that out!
UNIX consultant: Yes, those are valid files for 'cut'. Don't forget the options.
Customer: Do you always do this?
UNIX consultant: 'du' will give you disk usage.
Customer: HELP!
UNIX consultant: 'help' is only used for Source Code Control System.
Customer: You make me angry.
UNIX consultant: No, I don't 'make me' angry, but I did 'make programname' when I was upset once.
Customer: I don't want to make trouble, so no more.
UNIX consultant: No 'more'? 'which' will help you find 'more'. Every system has 'more'.
Customer: Nice help! I'm confused more now!
UNIX consultant: Understand that since 'help' is such a small program, it is better not to 'nice help'. And 'more now' is not allowed but 'at now' is. Unless, of course, 'now' is a file name.
Customer: This is almost as confusing as my PC.
UNIX consultant: I didn't know you needed help with 'pc'. Let me get you to the Pascal compiler team...