Where did everyone go? Was there a mass exodus which I was not invited to? Or perhaps an exciting Unix party?

@FaheemMitha I was also not invited. Happy Monday!

@JeffSchaller Clearly we are both pariahs. Happy Monday to you too!

Does this mean Debian patched out the ABBA Easter Egg? If so, spoilsports.

@StephenKitt You don't get the "gimme, gimme, gimme" string on 9.2? Curious, because I do.

faheem@orwell:~$ faketime '00:30:00' man
gimme gimme gimme
What manual page do you want?

@FaheemMitha yeah I just get the usual behaviour

I see that on Debian 8, but not on 9

@StephenKitt Odd.

yes, and I can’t figure out why...

faheem@orwell:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux 9.2 (stretch)
Release:        9.2
Codename:       stretch

I'm not sure what "No LSB modules are available." means. What is an LSB module?

@FaheemMitha they’re no longer supported in Debian

they used to be in lsb-core

@StephenKitt Oh. I don't think I've ever come across one.

Maybe that message should be patched out, then.

@FaheemMitha I don’t think so, because stuff that expects LSB support needs to know it’s not available

@StephenKitt ok

Might be a reasonable question - what are LSB modules and what are they good for?

From wiki.linuxfoundation.org/lsb/lsb-charter

> Each specification and associated software deliverables is known as an LSB module. LSB modules are produced in a common format designed to integrate with each other and can be either required or optional. Required modules are those modules that meet the LSB acceptance criteria. Optional modules are those modules that do not yet meet the LSB acceptance criteria and represent additional features in development or under consideration for inclusion in a future version of the LSB standard.

Clear as mud.

they’re just a way of grouping related features; there’s LSB Core, LSB Desktop, LSB Languages, LSB Imaging

so a basic LSB program would only need Core, a desktop-integrating program might want Desktop too

@StephenKitt I don't know what any of those are.

But I suppose I could read about it if I really cared.

@FaheemMitha yes, it’s all documented on refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/lsb.shtml

but TBH I don’t know whether anyone cares any more

@StephenKitt Ancient history - like what they used to use before ELF.

I can't even remember what that was any more.

@FaheemMitha a.out ;-)

or COFF on some platforms

@StephenKitt Yes, that. Well, you remember, at least.

Would an a.out binary run on modern Linux? I assume not.

@FaheemMitha IIRC support was dropped not all that long ago

@StephenKitt oh

ho ho no it’s still there, CONFIG_HAVE_AOUT

@StephenKitt Huh. Sample a.out binary, anyone?

@FaheemMitha you’d need the dynamic linker and libraries too

(or a static binary)

@StephenKitt Which have presumably gone the way of the dodo.

@FaheemMitha oh you can still find them

@StephenKitt For 9.2?

@FaheemMitha no, Debian 0.93r6 was the last a.out release

Got me curious; found an LKML thread from 1997: lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9705.0/0098.html

@StephenKitt Hmm. So runnable on a sufficiently old Linux distribution then.

@FaheemMitha probably runnable on a modern distro, with old binaries from an old distro

@JeffSchaller Interesting.

@StephenKitt It would be an interesting but pointless exercise.

Back in 1998, a visiting friend helped me install Red Hat 5.4, or whatever it was. I remember we talked about that then.

That was my first Linux installation.

I see the ABBA easter egg made HNQ.

@FaheemMitha fairly predictable ;-)

@StephenKitt Yes, it's not surprising.

BTW, can one type ABBA in Unicode? With the backwards B, that is.

Only U+018E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER REVERSED E is there as a regular letter. There are also reversed epigraphic F and P, small R and N, and esh and ezh. No B.

@MichaelHomer That's so sad.

@FaheemMitha you can always ask for it to be added :-)

@StephenKitt Should I mention ABBA?

@FaheemMitha as justification, yes

@StephenKitt Sounds like a plan. Everyone loves ABBA.

@FaheemMitha AᗺBA ?

@derobert How did you do that?

echo B | paracode -t mirror

@derobert Interesting. Maybe I should write a question about how to print ABBA on Unix, and get lots of imaginary internet points. And you too, of course.

Only if you run your post through paracode -r -t mirror first

@derobert Isn't that a job for your answer?

@derobert Now you're just showing off.

And I can read English upside down too. Just very much slower.

@derobert BTW, how well do you understand spoken Hindi?

@FaheemMitha Not at all

@derobert Ok, I figured that. But I thought one never knows. You might be a fanatical consumer of Bollywood films in private. I understand they're addictive.

It's all that singing and dancing. Can't get enough of it.

And if I happen to stand on my head, I'll definitely refrain from upvoting. Or, indeed, downvoting.

I can now stop flagging

Coincidence?

@derobert perhaps we should use that for answers to uoı̣ʇsənb-ı̣lɐʞ-ʇuəɔəp-ʎɐʍɟlɐɥ questions

@StephenKitt :-D

@StephenKitt Et tu, Stephen?