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As far as I can tell, the : command does nothing.

From the bash's help ::

:: :
    Null command.

    No effect; the command does nothing.

    Exit Status:
    Always succeeds.

Yet, I've found some people make use of the command for something else, for instance:

: ${var:=something}

My first guess is that is some "hacky" thing people do to do something.

Where can I find any documentation about it? Are there any other usage of it?

annahri
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