Re:Some powerful commands for Linux
by Groxx on Saturday November 27, 2010 @08:06PM
(#1946324)
Wow, that's nuts.
Explanation from a user on the site:
>the ':()' shows that we're making a new function named ':'. Everything inside the '{}' is the function body, it makes two recursive calls to the ':' function and puts them into the background with the '&' so that execution continues instead of waiting for them to exit. Then it ends that command with the ';' and executes the function ':'. That makes 2 calls to ':' which each make 2 calls, and so on until ulimit or your hardware capabilities stop it.
Explanation from a user on the site:
>the ':()' shows that we're making a new function named ':'. Everything inside the '{}' is the function body, it makes two recursive calls to the ':' function and puts them into the background with the '&' so that execution continues instead of waiting for them to exit. Then it ends that command with the ';' and executes the function ':'. That makes 2 calls to ':' which each make 2 calls, and so on until ulimit or your hardware capabilities stop it.
Comment by stuart 91 weeks and 2 days ago