What is shebang (#!) ? - Definition from Whatis.com

Among UNIX shell (user interface) users, a shebang is a term for the "#!" characters that must begin the first line of a script. In musical notation, a "#" is called a sharp and an exclamation point - "!" - is sometimes referred to as a bang. Thus, shebang becomes a shortening of sharp-bang. The term is mentioned in Elizabeth Castro's Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web.

Contributor(s): Andrew Zenz
This was last updated in September 1999

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