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Yeah — probably it doesn't matter how fast the yes command is. It will be faster than the program prompting for y/n.

FreeBSD's was nice and simple until someone decided to make it faster in r319897.

The yes command will repeat whatever string you give it, so it's useful for load/traffic testing. Speed helps this particular use-case.

That's a possible secondary use, but not really what the command is for.

Why not just use /dev/zero or /dev/urandom for generating load?

yes will repeat arbitrary data (including binary).

Because the yes command will repeat whatever string you give it. If you need to parse the incoming load in a certain way, /dev/{zero,urandom} won't be suitable.

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