Re: /dev/tcp

On 2026-08-20, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

> On Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:59:41 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:
>
>> In comp.os.linux.misc, Lawrence DOliveiro <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:20:56 -0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded wrote:
>>>>
>>>> What system(s) have /dev/tcp/* natively?
>>>
>>> Not sure what the point of it is, when you have this
>>> <https://manpages.debian.org/socat(1)>.
>>
>> This came up in the context of "how to test network on a system with
>> no root and no helpful utilities installed."
>
> So a version of bash that supports /dev/tcp is somehow excluded from
> that “no helpful utilities installed” assumption?
>
> Sounds like a circular assumption to me, somehow. You know, where you
> phrase the requirements so the only solution is the one you already
> picked.

There could be plenty of debate on whether the shell gets to be excluded
from that or not, and of how common GNU bash is, but there's another
interpretation of the question asked that does not cause the problem
you're pointing at:

The question is asking which systems have this *natively*... so, systems
where this bash feature wouldn't kick in.

(Is this specifically intended to be about Linux systems? If not,
perhaps it should be cross-posted to comp.unix.programmers?)

>> [*] knows you can use python, too, but doesn't have the code to do
>> so memorized
>
> Why would you need to?
>
> <https://docs.python.org/3/library/index.html>

You detected the circular assumption above, but you can't see the issue
with pointing to a networked resource for reference in case one doesn't
remember how to write the code to check for network connectivity?

-- 
Nuno Silva