Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!uunet!ukma!ufcsv!codas!mtune!icus!lenny
From: lenny@icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: /usr/bin/.!.
Summary: Here's a reply to the same question I asked a while back.
Keywords: 3b1
Message-ID: <216@icus.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 88 03:08:54 GMT
References: <368@pcbox.UUCP>
Reply-To: lenny@icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano)
Organization: ICUS Computer Group, Islip, NY
Lines: 61

In article <368@pcbox.UUCP> pjc@pcbox.UUCP (Paul J. Condie) writes:
|>
|>Does anyone know what the program /usr/bin/.!. does or is this another
|>mistery of life.

I asked the same question... here's the reply I got.


|>From: kevin@kosman.UUCP (Kevin O'Gorman)
|Newsgroups: unix-pc.general,comp.sys.att
|Subject: Re: UNIX PC wierd programs?!
|Keywords: programs, hidden, convergent
|Message-ID: <289@kosman.UUCP>
|Date: 24 Sep 87 22:37:22 GMT
|References: <53@quincy.UUCP>
|Reply-To: kevin@kosman.UUCP (Kevin O'Gorman)
|Organization: K.O.'s Manor - Vital Computer Systems, Oxnard, CA 93035

|In article <53@quincy.UUCP> lenny@quincy.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano) writes:
|>Recently there has been some discussion on "pcal" (CALENDAR 3.0) that 
|>was hidden in /etc/fixes directory.  Well I found I even more mysterious
|>oddity!
|>
|>/usr/bin/.!.   <-- note this is any executable.  Run it you will get a
|>laugh?  Now explain why it is here?  Why the list of people
|>/usr/installed/.list yet again another hidden file.  See what a:
|>
|>	$ find / -name .* -print
|>
|>Will do!!  
|
|Well, .!. (besides its graphic symbology) shows a list of the original Safari 4
|team members.  It was hacked in late in the original development cycle, and
|somehow got past the AT&T censors (if there are any, I don't know anything
|about AT&T Quality Control).  It's been just quietly sitting there since at
|least release 2.0.  
|
|.list is data for .!.
|
|It's kind of an in joke.  I only know about it because one of my very best
|friends is on the list.
|
|I generally change .list because of another in-joke, but you can safely just
|delete both files.  BTW you'll see what a crude hack .!. is from the state
|it leaves your console in.
|
|
|-- 
|
|Kevin O'Gorman ( kevin@kosman ) Vital Computer Systems, Oxnard, CA  93035

-- 
============================ US MAIL:   Lenny Tropiano, ICUS Computer Group
 IIIII   CCC   U   U   SSSS             PO Box 1
   I    C   C  U   U  S                 Islip Terrace, New York  11752
   I    C      U   U   SSS   PHONE:     (516) 968-8576 [H] (516) 582-5525 [W] 
   I    C   C  U   U      S  AT&T MAIL: ...attmail!icus!lenny  TELEX: 154232428
 IIIII   CCC    UUU   SSSS   UUCP:
============================    ...{uunet!godfre, harvard!talcott}!\
                   ...{ihnp4, boulder, mtune, bc-cis, ptsfa, sbcs}! >icus!lenny 
"Usenet the final frontier"        ...{cmcl2!phri, hoptoad}!dasys1!/