Learning unix shouldn't be a task or a job. Starting out, it's often 
best not to learn the more cryptic and powerful commands. Beginning
with fun and easy commands begins to give you a feel for the system,
how things work, while not bogging you down with too much technical
jargon. So, lets begin wtih two easy utils.

banner and sysvbanner

The banner command has been around for ages, and is great for fun
and amusement. ;)  For the most part, they perform the same function
but output in a different way. Both utils take a string for the user,
and output in a banner style.

sysvbanner: Takes the normal input string, and outputs in 7 character
            high letters. This is useful for creating login banners
            or large text to get user's attention.


forced ~$ sysvbanner amuse

   ##    #    #  #    #   ####   ######
  #  #   ##  ##  #    #  #       #
 #    #  # ## #  #    #   ####   #####
 ######  #    #  #    #       #  #
 #    #  #    #  #    #  #    #  #
 #    #  #    #   ####    ####   ######

forced ~$ 


Ever play with the old Print Shop program? Remember the 8 page long banners
it would print out? The 'banner' utility mimicks the old Print Shop
banners. For your typical admin, this probably will not be of much help.

The following output is slightly modified to help fit on the screen


forced /usr/bin$ banner i

 ####                                           ####
 ####                                           ####             ######
 ###################################################           ########## 
 ###################################################          ############ 
 ###################################################         ############## 
 ###################################################         ############## 
 ###################################################         ############## 
 ###################################################          ############ 
 ###################################################           ########## 
 ###################################################             ###### 
 #### 
 #### 
                                   
forced /usr/bin/$ 



jericho@attrition.org
(c) copyright 1998, 1999 Brian Martin