From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 21 06:08:38 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1C87416A4CE for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 06:08:38 -0800 (PST) Received: from www6.web2010.com (www6.web2010.com [216.157.5.254]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 380C343D49 for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 06:08:36 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from MLandman@face2interface.com) Received: from delliver.face2interface.com (dialup-wash-129-203.thebiz.net [64.30.129.203] (may be forged)) by www6.web2010.com (8.12.10/8.9.0) with ESMTP id hBLE8EjD005876; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 09:08:19 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <6.0.0.22.0.20031221090242.07fbbd78@pop.face2interface.com> X-Sender: face@pop.face2interface.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.0.0.22 Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 09:08:19 -0500 To: Colin Percival , Bill Moran , Colin Percival From: Marty Landman In-Reply-To: <5.0.2.1.1.20031220230641.02d15ec0@popserver.sfu.ca> References: <5.0.2.1.1.20031220224013.02cf25c0@popserver.sfu.ca> <5.0.2.1.1.20031220224013.02cf25c0@popserver.sfu.ca> <5.0.2.1.1.20031220230641.02d15ec0@popserver.sfu.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A bit of trivia: what does usr stand for? X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 14:08:38 -0000 At 06:08 PM 12/20/2003, Colin Percival wrote: >>The urban myth is believeable, though, since it seems silly to abbreviate >>"user" with "usr" ... I mean, you're only saving 1 letter. > > The same could be said about /tmp. I suspect it has less to do with >abbreviation, and more to do with someone having a broken "e" key on their >keyboard. ;) I like the broken 'e' key hypothesis, although given the first Unix developers were at Bell Labs I find it a little hard to believe; I worked at Bell Core once upon a time and faulty equipment like that was something I don't recall ever seeing. So I'll add a pet theory of my own [that just came to mind]. Being an old mainframe programmer I can attest to the fact that the last qualifier of a file name was conventionally made a 3 char filetype - e.g. asm, pli, obj, a convention still largely adhered to today. Maybe the original author of these main directories felt that using a 3 char name was in keeping with that convention. Marty Landman Face 2 Interface Inc 845-679-9387 Sign On Required: Web membership software for your site Make a Website: http://face2interface.com/Home/Demo.shtml