I've written more shell scripts than I can count, but I still stumble upon tricks that honestly blow my mind far too often than I care to admit. Latest thing that blew my head clean off? The shell colon. Published 23 July 2026 at 03:53 UTC Modified 26 July 2026 at 05:33 UTC Author Tags #shell #posix #unix In a land far-far away.. ... there was once a far too cold cup of coffee next to a freshly brewed far-too-hot one. Four different terminals where three could have been closed an hour ago, and a shell script which I really (really) did not want to write. Who would have thought a single colon would be the one to save the day night? Note : Want your mind blown straight away? See more colons in the limelight . Checking for required arguments This is a familiar dance, it's pretty much muscle memory by this point.…