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Date:      Thu, 2 Mar 2000 17:38:23 +1030
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        David Scheidt <dscheidt@enteract.com>
Cc:        Mark Ovens <mark@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: M$ one-ups UNIX???
Message-ID:  <20000302173823.S2905@freebie.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.3.96.1000301225919.16032B-100000@shell-1.enteract.com>
References:  <20000302014342.B327@marder-1> <Pine.NEB.3.96.1000301225919.16032B-100000@shell-1.enteract.com>

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On Wednesday,  1 March 2000 at 23:00:50 -0600, David Scheidt wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Mar 2000, Mark Ovens wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Mar 02, 2000 at 10:07:10AM +1030, Greg Lehey wrote:
>>> Just saw this on a NetBSD list.  It looks like a good idea.  We should
>>> make sure that they don't implement it before we do.
>>>
>>
>> :) Greg, can you nail down the year that symlinks first appeared in Unix?
>
>
> HISTORY
>      An ln command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.  The simplified
>      link command conforms to Version 2 of the Single UNIX
>      Specification.

It's simpler than that: without links, there would be no files.  The
link just associates the directory entry with the inode.  The only
thing that UNIX added was a reference count, allowing multiple
directory entries for a single file.  That in itself was a stroke of
genius, of course.

> So ln(1) is coming up on its thirtieth birthday.  

> I don't remember when symlinks came into the picture.

I'm pretty sure it was with ffs, which would have been 1982.
Missed'em V didn't get them until V.4, effectively about 1989.  When
they finally got symlinks, they went mad with them.

Greg
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