NAME
quiz - random knowledge tests
SYNOPSIS
quiz [-t] [-i file] [question answer]
DESCRIPTION
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
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
/usr/share/games/bsdgames/quiz The default index and data files.
BUGS
quiz is pretty cynical about certain subjects.