xref: /netbsd/games/quiz/quiz.6 (revision 6550d01e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: quiz.6,v 1.11 2009/03/11 13:05:46 joerg Exp $
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
4.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
7.\" Jim R. Oldroyd at The Instruction Set.
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33.\"	@(#)quiz.6	8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93
34.\"
35.Dd May 31, 1993
36.Dt QUIZ 6
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm quiz
40.Nd random knowledge tests
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl t
44.Op Fl i Ar file
45.Op Ar question answer
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Nm
49utility tests your knowledge of random facts.
50It has a database of subjects from which you can choose.
51With no arguments,
52.Nm
53displays the list of available subjects.
54.Pp
55The options are as follows:
56.Bl -tag -width indent
57.It Fl t
58Use tutorial mode, in which questions are repeated later if you didn't get
59them right the first time, and new questions are presented less frequently
60to help you learn the older ones.
61.It Fl i
62Specify an alternative index file.
63.El
64.Pp
65Subjects are divided into categories.
66You can pick any two categories from the same subject.
67.Nm
68will ask questions from the first category and it expects answers from
69the second category.
70For example, the command
71.Dq quiz victim killer
72asks questions which are the names of victims, and expects you to answer
73with the cause of their untimely demise, whereas the command
74.Dq quiz killer victim
75works the other way around.
76.Pp
77If you get the answer wrong,
78.Nm
79lets you try again.
80To see the right answer, enter a blank line.
81.Ss Index and Data File Syntax
82The index and data files have a similar syntax.
83Lines in them consist of several categories separated by colons.
84The categories are regular expressions formed using the following
85meta-characters:
86.Pp
87.Bl -tag -width "pat|pat" -compact -offset indent
88.It pat|pat
89alternative patterns
90.It {pat}
91optional pattern
92.It [pat]
93delimiters, as in pat[pat|pat]pat
94.El
95.Pp
96In an index file, each line represents a subject.
97The first category in each subject is the pathname of the data file for
98the subject.
99The remaining categories are regular expressions for the titles of each
100category in the subject.
101.Pp
102In data files, each line represents a question/answer set.
103Each category is the information for the question/answer for that category.
104.Pp
105The backslash character (``\e'') is used to quote syntactically significant
106characters, or at the end of a line to signify that a continuation line
107follows.
108.Pp
109If either a question or its answer is empty,
110.Nm
111will refrain from asking it.
112.Sh FILES
113.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/games/quiz.db -compact
114.It Pa /usr/share/games/quiz.db
115The default index and data files.
116.El
117.Sh BUGS
118.Nm
119is pretty cynical about certain subjects.
120