NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     quiz - random knowledge tests

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     quiz [-t] [-i file] [question answer]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The quiz utility tests your knowledge of random facts.  It has a database
     of subjects from which you can choose.  With no arguments, quiz displays
     the list of available subjects.

     The options are as follows:

     -t      Use tutorial mode, in which questions are repeated later if you
             didn't get them right the first time, and new questions are presented
 less frequently to help you learn the older ones.

     -i      Specify an alternative index file.

     Subjects are divided into categories.  You can pick any two categories
     from the same subject.  quiz will ask questions from the first category
     and it expects answers from the second category.  For example, the command
 ``quiz victim killer'' asks questions which are the names of victims,
 and expects you to answer with the cause of their untimely demise,
     whereas the command ``quiz killer victim'' works the other way around.

     If you get the answer wrong, quiz lets you try again.  To see the right
     answer, enter a blank line.

Index and Data File Syntax    [Toc]    [Back]

     The index and data files have a similar syntax.  Lines in them consist of
     several categories separated by colons.  The categories are regular
     expressions formed using the following meta-characters:

           pat|pat  alternative patterns
           {pat}    optional pattern
           [pat]    delimiters, as in pat[pat|pat]pat

     In an index file, each line represents a subject.  The first category in
     each subject is the pathname of the data file for the subject.  The
     remaining categories are regular expressions for the titles of each category
 in the subject.

     In data files, each line represents a question/answer set.  Each category
     is the information for the question/answer for that category.

     The backslash character (``\'') is used to quote syntactically significant
 characters, or at the end of a line to signify that a continuation
     line follows.

     If either a question or its answer is empty, quiz will refrain from asking
 it.

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

     /usr/share/games/quiz.db  The default index and data files.

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

     quiz is pretty cynical about certain subjects.

BSD                              May 31, 1993                              BSD