Mmastodon TechnologyInternet first seen 6 d ago, last 5 d ago, peak #1
How curl was accidentally Turing-complete for nine months
Original: How curl was accidentally Turing-complete for nine months From curl 8.12 through 8.16, config files could slice variable
The curl command-line tool turned out to be accidentally Turing-complete between versions 8.12 and 8.16, a span of roughly nine months. Its config files could slice variable values and include other config files with no explicit depth cap, and combined these features could simulate any two-counter Minsky program. The discovery is drawing attention as a quirky example of how small, harmless-looking features can combine into full computational power.
Why now: The surprising finding that a widely used download tool could, in effect, run arbitrary computations is fascinating to developers.
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