Decoding the obfuscated bash script on a Uniqlo t-shirt

tris.sherliker.net1072 pointsby speerer181 comments

Discussion summary

A Uniqlo T-shirt features an obfuscated bash script, which has sparked curiosity and discussion about its origin and purpose. The script is linked to a tech collaboration, possibly with Akamai.

What the discussion says

People are curious about the script's purpose and origin.
Some discuss the technical details and environment needed to run the script.
Others compare the shirt's design to historical tech protest or parody shirts.

“Why does the shirt have an obfuscated bash script on the back?”
— bryanrasmussen

“Uniqlo's collaboration was with a tech company, possibly Akamai.”
— kay_o

Comments

Hacker News

(:(){ :|:& };:)

This seems to work pretty well

by exabrial

Why does the shirt have an obfuscated bash script on the back?

by bryanrasmussen

Uniqlo frequently does collaborations. This was one with a tech company

by kay_o

Because it's by Akamai, the blog links to https://www.akamai.com/newsroom/press-release/uniqlo-adds-ne...

by Tiberium

P ./cool.sh: line 31: bc: command not found ./cool.sh: line 34: bc: command not found ./cool.sh: line 37: bc: command not found E ./cool.sh: line 31: bc: command not found ./cool.sh: line 34: bc: command not found ./cool.sh: line 37: bc: command not found

Very wow. Shame they assumed everyone has "bc"...

by lloydatkinson

You are fun.

by comradesmith

Which distro are you running? Perchance did you run the shell script in alpine Linux (docker)?

by greazy

Why would that be a shame? "bc" is a mandatory POSIX command, while /bin/bash isn't (/bin/sh is the standard).

by em500

Thanks for doing this, I almost bought it just to decode it, lol.

by moralestapia

Feels very reminiscent of the style of old DeCSS tshirts

https://www.wired.com/2000/08/court-to-address-decss-t-shirt...

by breppp

> I ran OCR in a few ways: First, using the built-in OCR of the circle-to-search feature on Android, which is often very good. Second, by using Tesseract with a few options and tweaks. And third by running it through Claude. After diffing the three to look for mismatches and getting Claude to output a table of locations for quick scanning, it became trivial but time-consuimg to tidy up the remainder

I bet 10$ I'd spend less time typing it from the t-shirt. And I wouldn't boil two kettles of water in the process.

But hey, AI makes you 10x more productive, I suppose

by koiueo

You may want to retract that bet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48830846

by freedomben

(Author here) for unrelated reasons my typing is very slow at the moment, so I was keen to automate. I see that people are getting different results from Claude than I did though.

by speerer

more like Tristan Shirt-liker, am I right?

by rsr

how is it obfuscated? It's literally written as plain black monospace text on a white background.

Pretty sure any AI can solve it in 20 seconds.

by mgaunard

It’s encoded not obfuscated. It’s even commented, which is the opposite of obfuscated. Plus it’s not really an Easter egg that was found: it is literally printed in a shirt. Easter eggs are supposed to be hidden and either only found by insider knowledge or deep investigation. This was neither.

by sanmarzano

TIL Consolas is a Windows font

by tantalor

> # Hide the cursor \ tput civis

Never thought I'd learn shell tricks from the back of a fast-fashion t-shirt, but here we are.

by mschuster91

Base64 without error correction turns the t-shirt itself into a lossy transport layer, so the OCR/transcription step becomes the actual challenge.

by icevl

Nice investigation, thx

by FijiBY

Whats going on with Uniqlo? Is it still popular in the US?

by brcmthrowaway

I want to submit a pr to s/SIGINT/0

You want to do that cleanup regardless why you exit.

by Brian_K_White

> I’ve no idea at all how many views this site gets, but I’m willing to bet it’s not even double-digit humans per month.

I'd take that bet considering it's got close to thousand upvotes and on front page of HN

by busymom0

Looks like it has a few shellcheck issues, and no set -euo pipefail? ;)

by willejs

Fascinating that we have base64 but not error correction for it!

by alexpotato

Brilliant marketing when you can get people to pay to walk around advertising with your logo!!

by khurs

Thanks for the post! Love Easter Eggs like these!

by doppp

Ive been to 3 Uniqlos in my are and i havent been blessed with a bash shirt :(

by khernandezrt

Consider ordering online. I see the product in the Uniqlo France store: https://www.uniqlo.com/fr/fr/products/E480814-000/00?colorDi...

by dolmen

After being primed by the article, I read the author's name as "Shirtliker"...

by brazzy

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Hacker News
(:(){ :|:& };:)
This seems to work pretty well
by exabrial
Why does the shirt have an obfuscated bash script on the back?
by bryanrasmussen
Uniqlo frequently does collaborations. This was one with a tech company
by kay_o
Because it's by Akamai, the blog links to https://www.akamai.com/newsroom/press-release/uniqlo-adds-ne...
by Tiberium
P ./cool.sh: line 31: bc: command not found ./cool.sh: line 34: bc: command not found ./cool.sh: line 37: bc: command not found E ./cool.sh: line 31: bc: command not found ./cool.sh: line 34: bc: command not found ./cool.sh: line 37: bc: command not found
Very wow. Shame they assumed everyone has "bc"...
by lloydatkinson
You are fun.
by comradesmith
Which distro are you running? Perchance did you run the shell script in alpine Linux (docker)?
by greazy
Why would that be a shame? "bc" is a mandatory POSIX command, while /bin/bash isn't (/bin/sh is the standard).
by em500
Thanks for doing this, I almost bought it just to decode it, lol.
by moralestapia
Feels very reminiscent of the style of old DeCSS tshirts
https://www.wired.com/2000/08/court-to-address-decss-t-shirt...
by breppp
> I ran OCR in a few ways: First, using the built-in OCR of the circle-to-search feature on Android, which is often very good. Second, by using Tesseract with a few options and tweaks. And third by running it through Claude. After diffing the three to look for mismatches and getting Claude to output a table of locations for quick scanning, it became trivial but time-consuimg to tidy up the remainder
I bet 10$ I'd spend less time typing it from the t-shirt. And I wouldn't boil two kettles of water in the process.
But hey, AI makes you 10x more productive, I suppose
by koiueo
You may want to retract that bet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48830846
by freedomben
(Author here) for unrelated reasons my typing is very slow at the moment, so I was keen to automate. I see that people are getting different results from Claude than I did though.
by speerer
more like Tristan Shirt-liker, am I right?
by rsr
how is it obfuscated? It's literally written as plain black monospace text on a white background.
Pretty sure any AI can solve it in 20 seconds.
by mgaunard
It’s encoded not obfuscated. It’s even commented, which is the opposite of obfuscated. Plus it’s not really an Easter egg that was found: it is literally printed in a shirt. Easter eggs are supposed to be hidden and either only found by insider knowledge or deep investigation. This was neither.
by sanmarzano
TIL Consolas is a Windows font
by tantalor
> # Hide the cursor \ tput civis
Never thought I'd learn shell tricks from the back of a fast-fashion t-shirt, but here we are.
by mschuster91
Base64 without error correction turns the t-shirt itself into a lossy transport layer, so the OCR/transcription step becomes the actual challenge.
by icevl
Nice investigation, thx
by FijiBY
Whats going on with Uniqlo? Is it still popular in the US?
by brcmthrowaway
I want to submit a pr to s/SIGINT/0
You want to do that cleanup regardless why you exit.
by Brian_K_White
> I’ve no idea at all how many views this site gets, but I’m willing to bet it’s not even double-digit humans per month.
I'd take that bet considering it's got close to thousand upvotes and on front page of HN
by busymom0
Looks like it has a few shellcheck issues, and no set -euo pipefail? ;)
by willejs
Fascinating that we have base64 but not error correction for it!
by alexpotato
Brilliant marketing when you can get people to pay to walk around advertising with your logo!!
by khurs
Thanks for the post! Love Easter Eggs like these!
by doppp
Ive been to 3 Uniqlos in my are and i havent been blessed with a bash shirt :(
by khernandezrt
Consider ordering online. I see the product in the Uniqlo France store: https://www.uniqlo.com/fr/fr/products/E480814-000/00?colorDi...
by dolmen
After being primed by the article, I read the author's name as "Shirtliker"...
by brazzy