Hidden humor in the command line: Every network engineer types something just to see what happens. Occasionally, the firmware answers back.
The command line interface is where network engineers spend most of their working lives. It is precise, functional, and sometimes funny.
Across decades of firmware, developers left hidden jokes, initials, and quirks in switch operating systems. Some can still be triggered; others survive only as stories from long-decommissioned labs. What separates a verified Easter egg from folklore is whether anyone can still prove it existed.
1. Junos OS: “request system zeroize” — Verified
The request system zeroize command wipes a Junos device back to factory defaults, erasing configurations and keys. Its ominous prompt — “All data will be removed and the system rebooted” — has become a darkly comic rite of passage for new engineers.
Source: Juniper Networks – “request system zeroize” Command Reference
2. Arista EOS: “bash” and “show chickens” — Verified
Type bash in Arista EOS to drop into a full Linux shell. The Easter egg appears when you type show chickens in certain SDK-enabled builds, producing ASCII poultry art or witty output — proof that Arista’s engineers still code with personality.
Source: FireDaemon Knowledge Base – Arista Networks Ethernet Switch Easter Egg
3. MikroTik RouterOS: ASCII banners — Verified
RouterOS displays ASCII MikroTik banners during login. It’s intentional branding, but it stands as one of the last examples of firmware that greets users with art instead of indifference.
Source: MikroTik – RouterOS CLI Reference
4. VyOS: MOTDs with personality — Verified
Community builds of VyOS have long included ASCII art and lighthearted MOTDs visible right in the GitHub commit history. Open source means open humor — nothing hidden about it, but it qualifies as modern CLI charm.
Source: VyOS GitHub Repository
5. 3Com SuperStack: Boot-time ASCII logos — Verified
Late-1990s 3Com SuperStack switches displayed elaborate ASCII company logos during boot. It wasn’t hidden; it was corporate whimsy from an era before neutral branding took over.
Source: 3Com SuperStack 3800 Series Documentation (archived)
6. Cisco IOS: “make it so” and “show me the money” — Folklore
Rumors claim older IOS builds contained playful Easter eggs like responding to “make it so” (a Star Trek reference) or displaying messages with “show me the money” on 2500-series routers. While neither has been definitively reproduced, the stories persist because Cisco’s developer culture in the 1990s made such humor plausible.
Source: Eeggs.com – Cisco Easter Egg Archive
7. HP ProCurve: “display team” — Folklore
Veterans of the ProCurve era recall a display team command listing firmware contributors. No public firmware contains it, but ProCurve switches did include hidden diagnostic modes with undocumented commands, making developer identifiers plausible.
Source: NetworkGeekStuff – ProCurve Hidden Commands
8. Dell Networking OS: “show tech-support funny” — Folklore
A long-running industry meme claims this command once returned jokes instead of logs. It never existed, but it remains popular precisely because it should.
Source: NetworkEngineering Stack Exchange – Firmware Easter eggs in switches?
9. Huawei VRP: Developer signatures — Folklore
Rumors suggest Huawei engineers once included signature banners in internal VRP builds. None have surfaced publicly, but it reflects a habit from the 2000s: leaving initials deep in code for posterity.
Source: NetworkEngineering Stack Exchange – Firmware Easter eggs in switches?
10. Cisco IOS: The “Interface” process trap — Verified
Early versions of Cisco IOS included a background process literally named Interface. Engineers running show processes | include Interface often found themselves matching that process instead of the interface statistics they were actually looking for. The behavior was quietly corrected in later 12.x releases after engineers filed it internally. It’s a small but memorable reminder that even the world’s most battle-tested firmware once had a sense of humor buried in its process list.
Source: Cisco IOS (Wikipedia)
When humor met compliance
Modern firmware leaves no room for whimsy. Secure coding standards and compliance reviews have largely removed personality from production builds. However, these stories — real and rumored — remind engineers that behind every system prompt was a human who couldn’t resist a quiet joke.
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