XKCD Deploys Command Line Interface

ipquickly was one of a large number of users to note that the best on-line comic has just got a little better with the addition of a command line interface. You can also sign the petition to make the CLI permanent.

Comments

uname

[Anonymous Showered]

guest@xkcd:/$ uname
Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

and

guest@xkcd:/$ su
God mode activated. Remember, with great power comes great ... aw, screw it, go have fun.

I lol'ed.

Re:No tab completion!

[QRDeNameland]

What is a shell without tab complete?!? Even Windows supports it.

However, I was impressed that it implemented up-down arrow command history, and even "ls".

I tried "rm -rf /" but permission was denied. :-)

Re:Hasn't everyone written a bogus shell at some t

[mikael_j]

"sudo su -" doesn't work but "sudo make me a sandwich" does.

Other fun things to do

[Virak]

• Typing cat with an argument, naturally dumps that file to stdout. Typing cat without an argument does something entirely different.
• On a semi-related note, typing "find kitten" lets you find kitten.
• rm -rf / doesn't work because, like on any good *nix system, you're not normally running as root.
• But you can use sudo with this (and several other things) to do it anyway.
• apt-get upgrade (don't forget the sudo) will gladly suggest an upgrade to you if you're using Internet Explorer.
• Both vim and emacs are available, in a manner.
• man doesn't provide help for most commands, but it does provide some amusing responses for some of them.
• Try typing "look".
• Various commands don't really do anything, but provide amusing responses. Try ping, ssh, ed, kill, or asl.
• There's a command for people who read the source code (along with, you know, the names of all the other commands), but you should find that on your own.
• And many, many more!

Re:Other fun things to do

[TubeSteak]

Everything is containted in this javascript:
http://www.xkcd.com/unixkcd/xkcd_cli_all.js

You can root around to figure out some of the more obscure commands.

Re:Other fun things to do

[creepynut]

If you get it from here it's a little more readable: http://github.com/chromakode/xkcdfools/blob/master/xkcd_cli.js

(found via the "source code" link at the bottom of xkcd.com)

undocumented commands I've seen:

[pushing-robot]

(most taken from the xkcd forum thread)

of course, (sudo) make me a sandwich
uname
su
sudo shutdown
sudo reboot
logout
pwd
lpr
clear
rm -rf /
find kitten
buy stuff
echo
finger
goto
date
irc/wget/curl
wget/curl xkcd.com
ping
vi/vim/emacs/nano
apt-get (moo)
sudo apt-get (update/upgrade/dist-upgrade)
moo
hello (joshua)
man (help) (cat) (last) (next)
go (west) (east) (south) (north)
look
light (lamp)
xyzzy
whoami
i read the source code
asl
cheat
buy stuff

Already permanent.

[Anonymous Coward]

guest@xkcd:/$ hint

This terminal will remain available at http://xkcd.com/unixkcd/

The petition people need to use the source, luke.

(hint is a random reply command, try it several times for that comment)

Re:No tab completion!

[robot256]

Randall certainly didn't make it easy to parse, though. There's no line breaks and all there a dozen different constructions for the commands.

Re:No tab completion!

[schnablebg]

The code is GPL'd and on Gitbub.

http://github.com/chromakode/xkcdfools

The petition is unnecessary...

[headLITE]

...it's still there if you use this link: http://xkcd.com/unixkcd/

Re:The petition is unnecessary...

[The Aethereal]

Not working for me either in FF or IE. Though I get no js errors. Just a prompt where I can't type anything.