utterly useless unix command (uuuc)

Exactly what purpose does this command serve ?

/usr/bin/yes kreaper@testbox % file /usr/bin/yes /usr/bin/yes: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.4, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.4, stripped


kreaper@testbox % /usr/bin/yes
y
y
y
y
y
y
^C
yikes!

kreaper@testbox % /usr/bin/yes "foobar" foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar foobar ^C

And yes, they’ve even got a MAN page for this crap.


kreaper@testbox % man yes
NAME
       yes - output a string repeatedly until killed
SYNOPSIS
       yes [STRING]...
       yes OPTION
DESCRIPTION
       Repeatedly output a line with all specified STRING(s), or `y'.
       --help display this help and exit
       --version
              output version information and exit
AUTHOR
       Written by David MacKenzie.
REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to .
COPYRIGHT
       Copyright Ã‚Â© 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       This  is  free  software.   You  may  redistribute  copies  of  it  under  the  terms  of  the GNU General Public License
       .  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
       The full documentation for yes is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and yes programs are properly installed at
       your site, the command
              info yes
       should give you access to the complete manual.
yes 5.93                                                   April 2006                                                     YES(1)

4 responses to “utterly useless unix command (uuuc)”

BB
March 1, 2007 at 11:11 pm | Permalink

anything that requires a repetitive entry of ‘y’, for example. I highly recommend trying the following:

% yes | /bin/rm -i *

:-)
rajeev karamchedu
March 4, 2007 at 6:48 pm | Permalink

so that’s one additional command and a wasted pipe to achieve what a command should natively be programmed to do. not sold yet, BB ! :)
mr e
October 14, 2009 at 2:41 pm | Permalink

Thanks for the tip! this is going to dramatically cut down on the amount of code I have in my scripts. Great find…
gna
May 5, 2010 at 4:40 pm | Permalink

% ssh $hosts “/usr/bin/yes | /usr/sbin/pkgadd ”

Saying “y” to every question pkgadd might ask so you can do something useful while it installs software on $hosts.

Hint: first comment contained brackets so the “hosts” is missing