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

Dear Slashdot,

[Jurily]

that was funny. Learn from him.

Re:Dear Slashdot,

[Jurily]

Flamewar time!

guest@xkcd:/$ vi

You should really use emacs.

guest@xkcd:/$ emacs

You should really use vim.

guest@xkcd:/$ ed

You are not a diety.

guest@xkcd:/$ nano

You should really use an editor.

Re:Dear Slashdot,

[zx-15]

Even better:
  guest@xkcd:/$ whoami
  You are Richard Stallman.
Also, a rather weird command execution:

guest@xkcd:/$ kill

Terminator deployed to 1984

But,

guest@xkcd:/$ kill 1

Unrecognized command. Type "help" for assistance.

Command parser definitely needs some work

guest@xkcd:/$ sudo -i

sudo: -i: command not found

Also I demand, while, for, if and which.

Re:Dear Slashdot,

[rolfwind]

$ make love

I put on my robe and wizard hat.

In this day and age...

[Dripdry]

It would feel delicious, to me, that right when the iPad comes out, designed for people to consume more ephemeral and pointless information than ever, that a site like this would make itself slightly more exclusive by moving backwards on the user interface timeline.

Bless your heart, xkcd!

Re:In this day and age...

[Drinking Bleach]

I support web sites that force both hands to be doing something. At least it makes us look more productive.

Re:In this day and age...

[garvon]

I work in the internet porn industry and we go for sites that can be surfed one handed.

No tab completion!

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Wait...this is a real story.

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot has completely missed the point of April fools day. They posted a REAL story in amongst the entire useless days worth of fake ones.

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.

sudo

[ZX3 Junglist]

sudo make me a sandwich
Okay.
http://xkcd.com/149/

Oblig. Sandwich.

[Anonymous Showered]

guest@xkcd:/$ make me a sandwich
What? Make it yourself.
guest@xkcd:/$ sudo make me a sandwich
Okay.
guest@xkcd:/$

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:Potty brain...

[ShadowRangerRIT]

You missed:

guest@xkcd:/$ go up
You cannot go up.
guest@xkcd:/$ go down
On our first date?

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

Re:retro

[ElectricTurtle]

Yeah, because all of this could be done with plain HTML, obviously. Of course it's scripted. What do people expect?

Yes, but

[bit9]

I've written a couple different fake shells, but usually just as a practical joke. Such as: C:\ > dir WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST! Proceed with Format? y Formatting 248.9 GB...3% I've also written a BSOD screensaver, which was really fun. I also once hacked someone's existing screensaver to throw in an occasional subliminal message like "Do it." or "Kill him." Oh, and don't forget the ol' replacing someone's desktop background with a screen-shot of their old desktop, and then deleting all the icons. That's always good for a few laughs.

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

[jc42]

Well, "sudo make me a sandwich" works only in the minimal sense of replying "Okay."

I'd have been more impressed if it replied "Okay, you're a sandwich."

The petition is unnecessary...

[headLITE]

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