Unix Error Messages
From: Tom Thomassen
(% represents the csh, $ represents the bourne shell) % "How poorly would you rate the Unix (so-called) user interface? Unmatched ". % rm congressional-ethics rm: congressional-ethics nonexistent % ar m God ar: God does not exist % [Where is Jimmy Hoffa? Missing ]. % ^How did the sex change^ operation go? Modifier failed. % If I had a ( for every $ Congress spent, what would I have? Too many ('s. %make love Make: Don't know how to make love. Stop. % sleep with me bad character % got a light? No match. % man: why did you get a divorce? man:: Too many arguments. % ^What is saccharine? Bad substitute. % \(- (-: Command not found. % sh $ PATH=pretending! /usr/ucb/which sense no sense in pretending $ drink <bottle; opener bottle: cannot open opener: not found $ mkdir matter; cat >matter matter: cannot create Or, in a System V (att) universe: $ cat "can of food" cat: cannot open can of food
The joke on this page was obtained from the FSF's email archives of the GNU Project. A similar collection of error messages (gathered in 1988) can be found at rec.humor.funny