The Unix Magic Poster
jpmens.net
jpmens.net
Same resolution, lower quality / smaller (smooshed with pngquant): https://github.com/tyingq/unix-magic-poster/raw/main/ump2.pn...
Also, what's "Oregano" in this context? Seems out of place if it's just the herb/spice.
This is answered in the second paragraph of the linked post...
> The oregano is reputedly referring to an incident in which one of the
> original folks involved with BSD was hassled for coming across the
> Canadian/U.S. border with a bag of what was assumed to be an illegal
> substance, and turned out to be oregano.The title "UNIX MAGIC" is arguably on a banner(1).
The wall(1) visible through the window. (On NetBSD there was also a window(1) utility.)
The peak visible through the window in the distance could be mount(1) ________.
And of course, there is a man(1) visible through the window.
The prominent display of the wizard's fingers, as in finger(1), in the foreground is probably intentional.
Having so many things hanging is probably not a coincidence.
Nor is the fact that the shell has an overflow.
The streams flowing from the tubes and from a head(1).
The object in the tar bucket appears to be composed of segments.
Arguably awk is written on what appears to be a block, as in badblocks(1).
The ring on top(1) of diff with the string/line, as in strings(1), must have some significance.
From the wizard's hat hangs something with various initials, maybe a tape, a tail(1) or a strip(1).
Perhaps the crack in "B" is supposed to mean something.
Also, there must be some significance to the question mark/ankh shaped hook on the stirrer in the shell. Maybe a it is a broken link(1).
This just shows another great thing about UNIX. They took names from common things. None of the silly names we see today, especially the ones people choose for "tech" companies.
The artist should have had the wizard pouring some buffer solution. Then the overflow would be even better.
The "lid" on the oregano, whether intentional or not, is a nice touch. https://www.etymonline.com/word/lid
B was the _flawed_ predecessor to C. Wikipedia alleges a lack of types was the main issue that consequently drove C's invention.
Hah, why is the cat(1)'s tail(1) missing from the drawing? Talk about missed oppertunity!
For anyone still interested: I can print a bit larger than A2 format: 43x65cm, the cost is around 4 euro for a print on glossy 190g/m2 epson photo paper or 11,1 euro for Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308g/m2 matte paper (that one is expensive but really good).
Edit: yes, I'd be happy to print the poster for you, feel free to write me!
Anyway, thanks for all your kind words and little stories!
P.S. this is how it looks printed on Hahnemühle Daguerre Canvas (colors are a bit more saturated irl): https://rybakov.com/files/unix1.jpg https://rybakov.com/files/unix2.jpg https://rybakov.com/files/unix3.jpg
- daemons
- whoami
- traps
- curses
- pwd
- inbox
bags hanging underneath them:
- spawn
- nroff
- dates
- root
a log against the fireplace wall which says "login",
with potion-like bottles saying "uucp"
and the biggest bottle of potion is named "C" (of course),
while an old broken bottle lies on the ground called "B" (of course)
Symbols on the wizard's clothes are all unix symbols:
- $ (default PS1)
- * (glob)
- % (substring)
- > and < (pipe redirection)
Now to the bottom (right to left):
- A jar called "troff"
- A spool called "usr"
- Container called "awk"
- A jar of "oregano"
- Cursive writing on a parchment paper, "shell script"
- A small cup of "tar"
- Another bottle called "diff"
Update: Ah, you said excluding the words! I guess I was too excited to write down what I saw :P
Double entendre or meta?
- The "shell process" (visual pun! I love it) is "outputting to null"
- The hat ribbon has the initials "dmr," "kt," and "bwk" - presumably Dennis M. Ritchie, Ken Thompson, and Brian W. Kernighan
Any others?
- The strand from his hat appears to have initials on it: DMR (Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie), KT (Ken Thompson), BWK (Brian Wilson Kernighan)
- SCM branches appear to rise from the ting
- B has a "chip" in it
- The "diff" vessel seems to have a special purpose -- not sure if that's intentional.
I’m assuming the boot is fit something, not sure what though.
some pipes have tee's
> "This poster is extremely rare. My father illustrated this series. He was not happy with the quality of the posters and inadvertently made them rare by throwing them all away. He still has the other two-a small handful that he is willing to sell." [0]
> "This is my father’s artwork. Believe he still has some to sell. I can’t recall which of the pictures he was not happy with the posters and threw almost all of them away. One of them is very rare." [1]
> "This is my father’s artwork. Believe he still has some of these for sale. He will sign if you’d like." [2]
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfGV-jBxizU
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6mGUT4vcIg
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGKzuP3GYRM
Here is also some Reddit threads from people wanting to obtain copies:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/ifmoua/ive_finally_f...
https://www.reddit.com/r/unix/comments/20cj6h/unix_magic_any...
https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/91ntoh/oc_unix_ma...
I suppose the hat helps keep his hair out of his face and the ribbon is there to remind him not to tilt his head too much into the shell? Or perhaps the ribbon is made of a reactive material which serves as a canary?
There are tees in the pipes and I think the trap and valve was significant. I think the bucket is catching a (memory) leak. Is the guy outside using a reaper? That's not just a spool, but a /usr/spool. There was some talk that the castle represented a domain. And of course the big c shell cauldron.
Actually I stand corrected, it was Unix Feuds and there was also a UniX Views, another comment here posted pictures of both. I might actually have all three.
https://archive.org/details/unix-magic-poster-gary-overcare-...
Edit: looks like Unitech Software actually holds the copyright
Does Unitech still exist?
Sometimes the original artist retains rights as well.
Unix Magic was only one out of three posters in a set. Unix Feuds. Unix Views. Unix Magic. You can see them all on an image search. [1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_number_(programming)
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22unix+views%22+or+%22unix+feuds%22+OR+%22unix+magic%22+posterJeff Atwood has the same link on this Coding Horror page: https://blog.codinghorror.com/are-recipes-for-novices/.
Perhaps Atwood knows where Overacre is?
Gary Overacre seems to have been a moderately important illustrator in the US with magazine covers and board games to his credit but now he's slipped into oblivion. Not even a Wikipedia page
https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/ifmoua/ive_finally_f...
- A wizard (which is a reference to a highly knowledgeable UNIX expert)
- the cauldron the wizard is using is in the shape of a seashell, and there are shells on the wizard's hat (on UNIX the shell is a textual interface between the user and the operating system)
- the wizard's hat has the word "su" on it ("su" is the "superuser" command used to "become" a "superuser", ie. the most powerful user on a UNIX system, where one can perform administrative tasks that ordinary users are not capable of doing)
- the wizard's robe contains: ">" and "<", which are symbols used for input and output redirection, "%" and "$" which are sometimes used in shell prompts and "$" is used in regular expressions to indicate the end of the line, "*" is another character used in regular expressions to mean "zero or more of the previous character" and used in the shell for "globbing" (as a "wildcard" for specifying a variable or "anything goes" part of a filename), "!" is used in shell history commands to reference previous commands
- there are containers at the bottom of the picture with the words: "diff" - a utility used to show difference between various texts, "tar" - a utility for creating, listing, and extracting archives, "null" - a reference to /dev/null, a "device" file that outputs the end of file when read and which discards any output sent to it, "troff" is a text formatting utility sometimes used for formatting documentation, "awk" is a language used for text manipulation, "C" is the main programming language used on UNIX, and "B" is a language that "C" descended from, "UUCP" - a once common but now obsolete file transfer utility
- there is a scroll with the words "shell script" on it, which refers to a program containing shell commands
- in the background there are pouches with the words: "spawn", which refers to creating a new process, what looks like "JFO" (not sure what this is), and "nroff" - another text formatting utility, "root" (the default name of the "superuser" account)
- there's a shelf with books bearing these titles: "Daemons" (which are background processes, usually used as "servers" on a unix system, which perform some function indefinitely, contrasting with regular applications which are more one-off processes that usually perform one function and exit), "Who am I" - a reference to the "whoami" utility that will tell you your user id, "traps" - the "trap" utility can be used to respond to signals, which are one way to perform inter-process communication on UNIX, usually used to indicate exceptional events, "Spells" - a word in keeping with the wizard theme, but I don't know if there's anything specific in UNIX that would be considerd a "spell" per se, "Curses" - a graphics library
- there is a container on the shelf with the word "pwd", which is a shell command used to tell you what the current directory is
- there is a box on the shelf with the word "mbox", which is a type of mail file on UNIX, and this box with the word "mbox" contains scrolls, which could be mail messages
- there is a black cat, which is also in keeping with the wizard theme, but I'm not sure whether it corresponds to anything specific in UNIX either (update: of course it's a reference to one of the most common and well-known commands on UNIX: "cat", which is used to output the contents of a file... don't know how I missed one of the most obvious symbols in the whole picture!)
- there is a black boot leaning against the wall. To "boot" a user off a UNIX system is to terminate or end their connection, "kicking" them off the system. "booting" a UNIX system is a term used for starting the system. "rebooting" refers to restarting the system.
- in the window a person with a scythe is reaping (or chopping down) some crops... to "reap" processes on UNIX is to kill them (or terminate/end them)
- under the ceiling are many pipes. pipes are used on UNIX for interprocess communication
- there is a bucket under a leaking pipe. The bucket may be there just for aesthetic reasons, though there is an informal "bit bucket" term which could refer to an abstraction for discarding information. The leaking pipe might be a reference to a "leaking abstraction", which is an abstraction (a high-level representation of something) which is supposed to "abstract away" or not reveal anything about how it's implemented, but when it "leaks" it inadvertently reveals something about how it's implemented anyway, causing all sorts of problems, like difficulties in switching to a different implementation.
- other probably purely aesthetic elements in the picture are a castle on a hill, mountains, and a sky seen through the window, a fireplace and a table. the "oregano" container on the table is probably also purely aethetic, as is the mortar (in the pestle with the word "tar")
- on the table lies a fork, which refers to "forking" a process (which creates a copy from an existing process and is a way UNIX has of creating new "child" processes from existing "parent" processes)
- on the "awk" container on the table is a spool of thread. "threads" on UNIX are lightweight processes. the spool of thread has the letters "usr" on it, which refers to the /usr partition on a UNIX system, which usually contains all sorts of UNIX utilities and libraries. To "spool" messages is to collect them for processing.
- the wizard is pouring glowing liquid from test tubes, with what look like circuit traces coming out of the cauldron. In the cauldron there is a ladle with an iron hook at the end. I'm not sure what any of these elements are supposed to represent.
- there is a spigot in the bottom of the cauldron, and it's emptying out in to the container labeled "null", which (as mentioned above) is a reference to the /dev/null device on UNIX, which will discard everything sent to it, so can be thought of as having infinite capacity, so even though it's a lot smaller in size than the cauldron all the liquid from the cauldron and more could be poured in to it without overflowing
- there is a log with the word "login", next to the fireplace. "login" is a process used to respond to what the user types at the "login:" prompt when first connecting to a UNIX machine. A "log" is a text file containing (usually timestamped) information about what a process is doing or to record series of events
- on the wizard's hat is a scroll which reads: "DMR", "KT", and "BWK". "KT" is probably Ken Thompson, one of the creators of UNIX. I don't recognize the others.
That's all I can spot.
Here is a direct link to the high resolution 32 MB PNG image of the poster: [1]
[1] - https://archive.org/download/unix-magic-poster-gary-overcare... Magic Poster - Gary Overcare (1).png
"cat" is a common command in Unix, it concatenates files (and if you give it one pathname, it displays the file).
Don't know how I missed that one...
Nitpick: a daemon can do a lot of things besides responding to requests, so I wouldn't say it's usually used as a server.
su is "substitute user," but it defaults to substituting the root user.
Still puzzled about the liquid, the hook, the diff jar lid with a ring, the two-colored PCB track-like shapes the cauldron is producing and whether "ke" is make.
I am surprised though you did not recognize DMR (Dennis M. Ritchie) and BWK (Brian W. Kerighan). :-)
Ken Thompson is also the one I am most familiar with and most in awe of, of this group, so that's why I could readily recognize his initials.
(had - one is now in the possession of my adult son)
I see that the .tiff is available, and I'm down to take it to my local print shop, but only if the total print cost is about $20-$30
A 3-foot tall poster can be over $500 if you get top-notch quality and put it behind nice glass and a nice custom frame.
It's hard to tell how large the photo is here, but $80 isn't surprising at all if the material mentioned (Al Dibond) really is nice. I'm not familiar with it.
If you just want the poster on normal poster paper, I'm confident you could find a print shop to do it for $25.
Edit: I checked groupon.de and found a 40x60cm (near DIN A2) aluminium dibond print for 19€ + 7€ shipping ( https://www.groupon.de/deals/lieblingsfoto-73 )
They do print on aluminum, similar to the described style - it's definitely not "dibond" in that there's no backing aluminum layer and by default (at least) no foamcore backing, but I've honestly never felt the lack. That said, when I hang prints, I hang them framed, so maybe it's a treatment designed for display on its own; when I do get aluminum prints from Bay Photo, they're generally one-offs of signs or other oddball stuff, so I don't really worry about fine-art presentation on those.