[tlug] Shebang [was: Evolution does write Japanese - kubuntu]

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Travis Cardwell writes:

 > > Additional question:
 > > What does the 2 characters "#!" in front of /bin/bash means and do?
 > 
 > The first line ("#!/bin/bash") is a convention for specifying the command
 > to execute a script with.  The "#" character generally specifies that the
 > line is a comment and can be ignored, but the "!" character after it
 > indicates that a command follows.  This script is therefore executed using
 > /bin/bash.

Note that (1) the "shebang" ("#!") is only valid on the first line (or
maybe the first non-empty line), and (2) there is no "he-bang",
"shebang" is short for "shell bang", and "bang" is traditional hacker
slang for "!".

You also have to be careful with arguments to the command, as only one
is guaranteed to be passed.  There are other limitations, but it's a
very useful hack.