Question for Dr. Salus

By red floyd

March 03 2007

Over on Slashdot, there's a discussion on the *ORIGINAL* meaning of /etc.

I figured you might be able to throw some light on the subject...

Was it et cetera, or was it some sort of acronym? The currently fashionable
"backronym" is "editable text configuration".

To be honest, I've been using Unix since about '82 (V7 on a PDP and BSD 4.1 on a
Vax), and have never heard that phrase, but always assumed et cetera.

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I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a *CITIZEN* of the United
States of America.

11:53 AM EST

By Peter H. Salus

March 03 2007

Sorry, I only noticed this a few minutes ago.

etc[etera] (= all the other stuff: doesn't go into
bin, dev, tmp, usr, var).

bin, Ritchie & Thompson tell us, is short for "tool bin."

"editable text configuration" is completely alien to the
way of thinking/labeling of Ritchie, Thompson, Kernighan,
or McIlroy.

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Peter H. Salus

01:57 PM EST

"Tool Bin"?

By Simon G Best

March 03 2007

"Tool bin"? I always thought (assumed) 'bin' was short for 'binary', as in 'binary executables', although the idea of 'bin' as in 'some kind of container you dump things in' had occasionally occurred to me and amused me. But now I am enlightened. Thank you Dr Salus :-)

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"Public relations" is a public relations term for propaganda.

02:05 PM EST

Question for Dr. Salus

By Peter H. Salus

March 03 2007

You know, there are times where being an elderly
technological historian is useful. What puzzles
me is why folks pool their ignorance to fabricate
nonsense, rather than merely seeking the truth.

"Ask and it shall be given..."

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Peter H. Salus

05:49 PM EST

Question for Dr. Salus: final word

By Peter H. Salus

March 04 2007

As a footnote, I just received email from Dennis Ritchie
stating:

I assure you that the original contents of /etc
were the "et cetera" that didn't seem to fit elsewhere.
Other variants might do their own etymologies differently.

Regards,
Dennis

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Peter H. Salus

07:51 AM EST

"Tool Bin"?

By russm

March 04 2007

Yes it has that 'rightness' too it, especially when you can think of the /sbin
being the 'system tool bin'. So /etc(era) being the place for the other stuff
fit nicely.

08:01 AM EST

"Tool Bin"?

By Peter H. Salus

March 04 2007

Well, in electronics, a bus (as far as I can tell) was
originally a "shared pathway." Whether this was derived
from "bus" for a shared passenger vehicle, I don't know.
And I just don't have the resources at home to do a good
deal of research.

However, it is important to keep in mind the fact that
bus for multipassenger vehicle pre-dates the motorized
omnibus by a number of decades.

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Peter H. Salus

10:12 AM EST

Wonderful, the power of the web

By LocoYokel

March 05 2007

And apparently Messrs. Ritchie et. al. read Groklaw, or someone close to them
does and forwards items of interest to them.

---
Waiting for the games I play to be released in Linux, or a decent Windows
emulator, to switch entirely.

11:21 AM EST

"Tool Bin"?

By Peter H. Salus

March 05 2007

Oh dear.

bin for "tool bin"

sbin for "system tool bin"

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Peter H. Salus

04:05 PM EST

Wonderful, the power of the web

By Peter H. Salus

March 05 2007

I wrote to Dennis and asked, after the first
posting. However, for (private) comments, I
can attest that a number of "notables" do read
Groklaw -- or at least look at it.

I would not be surprized to learn that some of
the nyms and an occasional anonymous veil quite
distinguished folks.

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Peter H. Salus

04:09 PM EST