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The *man* utility no longer prints "gimme gimme gimme" after midnight
Prior to this update, there was an Easter egg in the *man* utility that printed "gimme gimme gimme" in the standard error output at 00:30 local time. As a consequence, under certain circumstances the unexpected output misled automated tools. With this update, the Easter egg has been removed, and the described problem no longer occurs.
Description of problem:
The upstream man-db project includes an easter egg where the following is returned to stderr:
"gimme gimme gimme"
Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
man-db-2.6.3-9.el7.x86_64
How reproducible:
Easily
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Run the reproducer below:
# ITER=5; date -s "00:29:58" 1>/dev/null && while true; do if [[ ! $((ITER--)) -le 0 ]]; then date; man -w 1>/dev/null; sleep 1; else break; fi; done
2. Verify output returned
Actual results:
Mon Nov 20 00:29:58 EST 2017
Mon Nov 20 00:29:59 EST 2017
Mon Nov 20 00:30:00 EST 2017
gimme gimme gimme
Mon Nov 20 00:30:01 EST 2017
gimme gimme gimme
Mon Nov 20 00:30:02 EST 2017
gimme gimme gimme
Expected results:
Mon Nov 20 00:29:58 EST 2017
Mon Nov 20 00:29:59 EST 2017
Mon Nov 20 00:30:00 EST 2017
Mon Nov 20 00:30:01 EST 2017
Mon Nov 20 00:30:02 EST 2017
Additional info:
This easter egg is documented in the upstream commit below.
commit 002a6339b1fe8f83f4808022a17e1aa379756d99
Author: Colin Watson <cjwatson>
Date: Mon Nov 7 16:09:08 2011 +0000
Easter egg suggested by Thomas Thurman.
diff --git a/src/man.c b/src/man.c
index 1978329e..48af3c08 100644
--- a/src/man.c
+++ b/src/man.c
@@ -1154,8 +1154,16 @@ int main (int argc, char *argv[])
debug ("\nusing %s as pager\n", pager);
- if (first_arg == argc)
+ if (first_arg == argc) {
+ /* http://twitter.com/#!/marnanel/status/132280557190119424 */
+ time_t now = time (NULL);
+ struct tm *localnow = localtime (&now);
+ if (localnow &&
+ localnow->tm_hour == 0 && localnow->tm_min == 1)
+ fprintf (stderr, "gimme gimme gimme\n");
+
gripe_no_name (NULL);
+ }
section_list = get_section_list ();
Hello Nikola,
thank you! I have made few additional changes which may specify what was actually happening. But I am not sure by their technical accuracy. Could you please check again if I am not wrong?
----
The *man* utility no longer prints "gimme gimme gimme" after midnight
Prior to this update, there was an Easter egg in the *man* utility that printed "gimme gimme gimme" in the standard error output at 00:30 local time when "man -w" was used. As a consequence, under certain circumstances the unexpected output caused a wrong exit status which misled automated tools. With this update, the Easter egg has been removed, and the described problem no longer occurs.
----
Changes I am not sure of:
--> I tried to specify when exactly was the bug happening (when "man -w" was used). Was it just with this command?
--> "the unexpected output caused a wrong exit status which misled automated tools" From what I understood, the problem was not the "gimme gimme gimme", but exit status 0 instead of something else...
Thank you!
Best regards,
Adam Kvítek
No, the text was printed every time man was run without a man page argument, regardless of the -w option, so for instance
$ man
$ man -w
but not
$ man -w bash
And no, there was no change in exit status.
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.
For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.
If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2018:3060
Description of problem: The upstream man-db project includes an easter egg where the following is returned to stderr: "gimme gimme gimme" Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): man-db-2.6.3-9.el7.x86_64 How reproducible: Easily Steps to Reproduce: 1. Run the reproducer below: # ITER=5; date -s "00:29:58" 1>/dev/null && while true; do if [[ ! $((ITER--)) -le 0 ]]; then date; man -w 1>/dev/null; sleep 1; else break; fi; done 2. Verify output returned Actual results: Mon Nov 20 00:29:58 EST 2017 Mon Nov 20 00:29:59 EST 2017 Mon Nov 20 00:30:00 EST 2017 gimme gimme gimme Mon Nov 20 00:30:01 EST 2017 gimme gimme gimme Mon Nov 20 00:30:02 EST 2017 gimme gimme gimme Expected results: Mon Nov 20 00:29:58 EST 2017 Mon Nov 20 00:29:59 EST 2017 Mon Nov 20 00:30:00 EST 2017 Mon Nov 20 00:30:01 EST 2017 Mon Nov 20 00:30:02 EST 2017 Additional info: This easter egg is documented in the upstream commit below. commit 002a6339b1fe8f83f4808022a17e1aa379756d99 Author: Colin Watson <cjwatson> Date: Mon Nov 7 16:09:08 2011 +0000 Easter egg suggested by Thomas Thurman. diff --git a/src/man.c b/src/man.c index 1978329e..48af3c08 100644 --- a/src/man.c +++ b/src/man.c @@ -1154,8 +1154,16 @@ int main (int argc, char *argv[]) debug ("\nusing %s as pager\n", pager); - if (first_arg == argc) + if (first_arg == argc) { + /* http://twitter.com/#!/marnanel/status/132280557190119424 */ + time_t now = time (NULL); + struct tm *localnow = localtime (&now); + if (localnow && + localnow->tm_hour == 0 && localnow->tm_min == 1) + fprintf (stderr, "gimme gimme gimme\n"); + gripe_no_name (NULL); + } section_list = get_section_list ();