"Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is…

“Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger” is from The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973). There have been many jocular variations.

Unix is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems. “Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is subtle and quick to anger” was posted on the newsgroup net.unix on August 26, 1985. “Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is subtle and quick to core dump” was posted on the newsgroup comp.unix.questions on November 27, 1987.

Wikiquote: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954); first of three volumes in The Lord of the Rings books by J. R. R. Tolkien. It contains Book I: The Ring Sets Out and Book II: The Ring Goes South
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Book I; Thee Is Company
Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
. Gildor

Wikipedia: Unix
Unix (/ˈjuːnɪks/; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, development starting in the 1970s at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and others.

Initially intended for use inside the Bell System, AT&T licensed Unix to outside parties in the late 1970s, leading to a variety of both academic and commercial Unix variants from vendors like the University of California, Berkeley (BSD), Microsoft (Xenix), IBM (AIX), and Sun Microsystems (Solaris). In the early 1990s, AT&T sold its rights in Unix to Novell, which then sold its Unix business to the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) in 1995. The UNIX trademark passed to The Open Group, a neutral industry consortium, which allows the use of the mark for certified operating systems that comply with the Single UNIX Specification (SUS). As of 2014, the Unix version with the largest installed base is Apple’s macOS.

Google Groups: net.unix
4.2 Printer Spooler Question (long answer)
Roger Southwick
8/26/85
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[Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is subtle and quick to anger.]

Google Groups: net.unix-wizards
Those trilling days of yesteryear
Roger Southwick
3/5/86
[Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is subtle and quick to anger.]

Google Groups: comp.unix.questions
Unix License plates (Re: unix t-shirts)
Roger Southwick (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))
11/27/87
[Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is subtle and quick to core dump]

Google Groups: comp.unix.ultrix
Error in Ultrix include file
Roger S. Southwick @ Tektronix
6/20/88
[Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is subtle and quick to core dump]

Google Books
Dictionary of Proverbs
By Grenville Kleiser
New Delhi, India: A.P.H.Publishing Corporation
2005
Pg. 42:
Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is subtle and quick to core dump

Keiyla’s Blog
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Do not meddle!
While writing a paper on Tolkien for a class, I came across several lists of “altered” quotes. The original quote is by Gildor, from The Fellowship of the Ring, written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Gildor told Frodo, “Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.” Because there were several lists of altered quotes and no single place seemed to have them all, I decided to post them here. I have no idea who actually came up with the parodies.
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Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is subtle and quick to core dump.

Twitter
Gina Ferrari
@WordYouDontKnow
Do not meddle in the affairs of Unix, for it is subtle and quick to core dump. ~ Anon #Quotes
11:19 AM - 23 Mar 2018