From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 21 20:14:05 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 AA2D516A4CF for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 20:14:05 -0800 (PST) Received: from carver.gumbysoft.com (carver.gumbysoft.com [66.220.23.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A6B3943D54 for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 20:14:03 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dwhite@gumbysoft.com) Received: by carver.gumbysoft.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 98F7C72DB5; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 20:14:03 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by carver.gumbysoft.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9647572DAD; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 20:14:03 -0800 (PST) Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 20:14:03 -0800 (PST) From: Doug White To: Marty Landman In-Reply-To: <6.0.0.22.0.20031221090242.07fbbd78@pop.face2interface.com> Message-ID: <20031221201221.S55059@carver.gumbysoft.com> 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> <6.0.0.22.0.20031221090242.07fbbd78@pop.face2interface.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: chat@freebsd.org cc: Bill Moran 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: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 04:14:05 -0000 On Sun, 21 Dec 2003, Marty Landman wrote: > 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. I like the faulty equipment idea; reference creat(2). Or someone who didn't like the letter 'e'. I think it was Kerningham that said that given the chance to do it all over, he would have called it create(2). -- Doug White | FreeBSD: The Power to Serve dwhite@gumbysoft.com | www.FreeBSD.org