Unix master Myong was told of a stray cat that had taken up
residence in the operations hall, sleeping in the server
cabinets and napping atop the ancient CRTs for warmth. The
situation had grown objectionable when the creature began
using a crate of spare cables as a litterbox.
Myong captured the cat and placed it on a table before six
monks of the Clan of Iron Bones, saying, “If each of you can
speak a command line which performs the same function as
cat, I will spare this animal. If not, I will kill it.”
The first monk quickly said, “cat”.
The second said, “grep ^”.
The third said, “sed s/^//”.
The fourth said, “tr x x <”.
The fifth said, “perl -pe 0”.
The sixth wracked his brains for a full minute, then hung
his head in shame.
Myong held the cat gently by the scruff of its neck and
raised his knife, whereupon the sixth monk barked like a dog
as loud as he could. The cat shot out of the master’s grip
in terror and disappeared down the hallway.
