Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:10 am Post subject: mnemonics for unix commands
There are some commands where I don't know what they stand for. Some
are obvious (mv for move, cp for copy), others are less obvious (tac
as an inverted cat, tee ), and some I don't get at all (e.g. df, pr,
dd ).
Unfortunately the man and info pages (at least mine) don't make it
clear what exactly the command names stand for, they 'only' give a
description what these commands do.
Has anybody a list of common unix command names together with their
mnemonics?
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:10 am Post subject: Re: mnemonics for unix commands
In article <72b3ce20-856b-4d38-a3b3-d0afcce71f5d@k37g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>,
Florian Kaufmann <sensorflo@gmail.com> wrote:
Quote:
There are some commands where I don't know what they stand for. Some
are obvious (mv for move, cp for copy), others are less obvious (tac
as an inverted cat, tee ), and some I don't get at all (e.g. df, pr,
dd ).
Unfortunately the man and info pages (at least mine) don't make it
clear what exactly the command names stand for, they 'only' give a
description what these commands do.
Has anybody a list of common unix command names together with their
mnemonics?
Sounds like you need to pick up an O'Reilly book or two.
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:10 am Post subject: Re: mnemonics for unix commands
Phil wrote:
Quote:
Florian Kaufmann wrote:
There are some commands where I don't know what they stand for. Some
are obvious (mv for move, cp for copy), others are less obvious
snip>>> dd
disk-to-disk I think
I've read that orginally it should have been named cc, after 'copy and
convert' but that was used by the compiler, so they picked dd and then
backronymed it called it "data definition"
Optinion 1: Dataset Definition (named after the OS/3x0 JCL DD
command who's syntax it also ripped off as a joke; see here)
Opinion 2: Copy and convert (called dd because cc is the C
compiler; see here)
Opinions 3-n: data, device, disk, dump in various combinations
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:10 am Post subject: Re: mnemonics for unix commands
On 2008-05-15, Joachim Schmitz <nospam.jojo@schmitz-digital.de> wrote:
Quote:
There are some commands where I don't know what they stand for. Some
are obvious (mv for move, cp for copy), others are less obvious
snip>>> dd
disk-to-disk I think
I've read that orginally it should have been named cc, after 'copy and
convert' but that was used by the compiler, so they picked dd and then
backronymed it called it "data definition"
Carbon Copy, I've heard. Makes sense. After all, it makes an exact copy.
--
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The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
Douglas Adams
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 1:10 pm Post subject: Re: mnemonics for unix commands
Florian Kaufmann wrote:
Quote:
There are some commands where I don't know what they stand for. Some
are obvious (mv for move, cp for copy), others are less obvious (tac
as an inverted cat, tee ), and some I don't get at all (e.g. df, pr,
dd ).
Unfortunately the man and info pages (at least mine) don't make it
clear what exactly the command names stand for, they 'only' give a
description what these commands do.
Has anybody a list of common unix command names together with their
mnemonics?
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 1:10 pm Post subject: Re: mnemonics for unix commands
Florian Kaufmann <sensorflo@gmail.com> writes:
Quote:
as an inverted cat, tee ), and some I don't get at all (e.g. df, pr,
dd ).
dd - that's has to do with the old IBM JCL "language"
that was used when you ran a punch card job. DD was Data Definition.
In those dayes. you had some punch cards with special commands that
told the mainframe what to do with the input (like compile and run,
and print).
Something like (it's been 38 years)...
//SYSIN DD SYSOUT=PRINTER
The amusing thing is that while dd has options like
dd if=in of=out
it was done as a joke (as Stephane says), you can also use the simpler:
dd <in >out
But a lot of people still use if= and of=
make - the paper on this says there are four steps to debug: Think,
edit, make, run. Make automated all of step three.
lint - a picker of bits of fluff from a program. The original compiler
was made to run fast. lint was the optional error checker, and a
separate step. The Gnu compiler has since integrated the two
functions, making lint obsolete.
As a user of computer systems in the 1970's, I was amazed how
fast cc was. In those days, the non-Unix Fortran compiler was
one program that did everything - but slowly. If you needed
to generate a cross-reference, you had to check, recompile and
link as well. Splitting the C compiler, in into cc, cb, lint,
cc, link, num, pr was a great idea at that time.
awk - from the three authors last names..
nn - network news
wall - Write to All. Write(1) sent a message to another user.
If we go back to older systems, some of them had amusing names.
biff - the manual says "Be notified IF mail arrives and who it is From"
but there was a dog named Biff that would bark when mail arrived.
ping - I think it's onomatopoeic, but some people say
"Packet InterNetwork Groper"
There were other commands, like see, num, pc, pi, pix, px, pic, tc,
call, net, etc. And these prevented other commands from using the
same names for a while.
I think I read somewhere that one command (or perhaps it was the
system call) the creator regretted making too short was "umount" -
which should have been "unmount."
Eric Raymond's Jargon File says it stands for "Dataset Definition",
from IBM System/360 JCL.
<http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/D/dd.html>
--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Nokia
"We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this."
-- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject: Re: mnemonics for unix commands
Rikishi 42 wrote:
Quote:
On 2008-05-15, Joachim Schmitz <nospam.jojo@schmitz-digital.de> wrote:
There are some commands where I don't know what they stand for.
Some are obvious (mv for move, cp for copy), others are less
obvious
snip>>> dd
disk-to-disk I think
I've read that orginally it should have been named cc, after 'copy
and convert' but that was used by the compiler, so they picked dd
and then backronymed it called it "data definition"
Carbon Copy, I've heard. Makes sense. After all, it makes an exact
copy.
not with the conv= option
Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 4:10 am Post subject: Re: mnemonics for unix commands
On 16 Mai, 03:53, Maxwell Lol <nos...@com.invalid> wrote:
Quote:
I think I read somewhere that one command (or perhaps it was the
system call) the creator regretted making too short was "umount" -
which should have been "unmount."
Never heard that about umount (though still possible, of course), but
that's at least true for the 'creat' system call.
Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 4:10 am Post subject: Re: mnemonics for unix commands
In article
<c7172123-5994-4bdc-ad17-4f9c4e5c55cc@m36g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
Janis <janis_papanagnou@hotmail.com> wrote:
Quote:
On 16 Mai, 03:53, Maxwell Lol <nos...@com.invalid> wrote:
I think I read somewhere that one command (or perhaps it was the
system call) the creator regretted making too short was "umount" -
which should have been "unmount."
Never heard that about umount (though still possible, of course), but
that's at least true for the 'creat' system call.
Yeah, isn't the quote something like "If I had to change one thing about
the system, I would have spelled it 'create'."?
--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 11:10 pm Post subject: Re: mnemonics for unix commands
Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> writes:
Quote:
Yeah, isn't the quote something like "If I had to change one thing about
the system, I would have spelled it 'create'."?
Barry, you may be right.
Quote:
--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
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