What does the ∴ character do in a bash shell?

Question

Stumbled across the ∴ operator in some of the rvm install scripts and couldn't seem to locate information on what it does? Is there documentation on this somewhere?

Answer 1

I'll guarantee it's not a bash thing. UNIX is famous for the terseness of its commands but even it wouldn't go that far :-)

It's possible that RVM may create a script or executable with that name so that entering it on the command line may do something but, if that's so, it's a good reason for me to avoid RVM.

However, since the context seems to be lines like:

∴ bash < <( curl http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/releases/rvm-install-head )
∴ rvm update
∴ gem update rvm && rvm-install

I would suggest it's the prompt in use for the shell rather than a command.

Answer 2

It does nothing - that seems to be the character that wayneseguin is using for his bash prompt. Many might see :~ instead by default.

Answer 3

This is the Unicode 0x2234 character meaning "therefore". This is definitely not a bash operator.

I guess you found this character on http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/rvm/install/ and thought it would belong to the command line. Maybe they just use it on the website to indicate a shell (usually indicated by # or $).

Answer 4

cat <<∴
Very unlikely to find an accidental ∴
at the beginning of a line in a here
document. But it would tend to
confuse a reader.
∴