Salix OS

Hi, just stumbled upon a specific command-line question, for which I'd actually like a more general answer:

Using apropos for something unrelated, one of the results is:
However I've yet to find any other references to a wtf command. Have tested man wtf, type -a wtf, etc. Even this global search turns up empty:

So the specific question is, "whatis wtf," while the more general query is, how would a user best answer such a question for themselves?

Thanks!

Install the bsdgames package and find out.

What the %$#@!

Why does apropos know about these when the bundle isn't even installed?

Incidentally (apropos ...) the SlackBuild for cowsay seems to have a bad link to the source.

(In the past I have hooked cowsay up to fortunes at login.)

That's bsd-games, by the way.

Thanks for the lead, gapan. Is it a glitch that wtf is present in the whatis database, while it's missing from the system (Salix 13.37 Fluxbox)? Otherwise, how would a user unravel this mystery on their own?

I'm guessing that it shows in apropos, because in a full slackware installation the bsd-games package is installed by default.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. Should have followed my own advice, to check upstream, before even considering a possible glitch in Salix

Also am curious now, whether bsd-games is the same Slackware package which used to be simply called games. While normally doing a Full slack install, I always used to deselect the "[y]" group IIRC, to avoid the temptation of Adventure Cave.

jayseye wrote:... Adventure Cave.

I installed bsd-games and gave it a try and it all came back to me. I remember playing it on a PDP11/23 in the lab at work back in the early 80's

BTW, /usr/games isn't in the users path so to run any of the game/applications you need to precede the command with /usr/games

I also worked on a PDP11/23 in an academic lab, in the mid- to late 80s. However, that mini lacked any games; it ran only RT-11, FORTRAN, and assembly language.

Years before, in the late '70s I spent many hours in Adventure Cave on a DEC 10. Along with man pages it also had a help command and, out of frustration one day, I tested "help me". The response: "You're beyond help."

EDIT: BTW, I believe that /usr/games is in the normal user PATH by default, under Salix Fluxbox 13.37. Perhaps that changed in 14?