From owner-freebsd-questions  Mon Nov  4 18:23:34 2002
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 04:23:20 +0200
From: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
To: DaleCo Help Desk <daleco@daleco.biz>
Cc: lewiz <purple@lewiz.info>,
	FreeBSD-questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject: Re: ``root''?
Message-ID: <20021105022320.GF33199@gray.sea.gr>
References: <20021104220037.GA1110@lewiz.org> <010b01c2845a$0ba83010$fa00a8c0@DaleCoportable>
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On 2002-11-04 17:29, DaleCo Help Desk <daleco@daleco.biz> wrote:
> From: "lewiz" <purple@lewiz.info>
> To: "FreeBSD-questions" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
> Sent: Monday, November 04, 2002 4:00 PM
> Subject: ``root''?
>
> Classic computer science.  A search tree begins with
> one decision, branching to two, each of those with 2
> more possibilities, etc., etc., etc.
>
> Go to / and type "cd .."  you can't go any deeper/
> higher...(more classic comp sci --- trees grow 
> upside down.....)  You are at the 'root' of the tree.

This doesn't explain why the username though.  It certainly is a good
explanation of the filesystem-related meaning.  One minor extra hint
and it's all set.  In older UNIX installations, the HOME directory of
the root user was in fact ``the root of the filesystem'' and not /root
as it is now.  I don't know what came first, the username or the HOME
though.

Giorgos.

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