On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 10:01:14PM +0000, Brett Parker wrote:
On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 10:47:12PM +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
When typed into a bash prompt
:(){ :|:&};:
I have been told it does bad things so don't try it, is it folklore or does it really do something nasty ?
Looking at it, I'd say it creates a function called : and then recursively executes itself through itself... probably ends in an infinite loop, with lots and lots and lots of forks.
Though, I could be wrong :)
If anyone else can see anything obvious, that I've missed, I'd be interested.
Thanks,
Note to self: when you think it's going to fork lots, and you've posted this to the list, at least give it 5 mins for Daniel to confirm it *before* you decide to randomly try it to see what happens
Note number2: process limit myself so that I can't cause such pain and unclean reboots again
Note number3: XFS rocks, the machine came back cleanly, and fast :)
Thanks,