Why upper case configuration file names in BSD?

Why upper case configuration file names in BSD?

[Greg Lehey]

I've just been asked a rather unusual question: when you build a BSD
kernel, the name of the configuration file is traditionally upper
case.  Does anybody have insight as to why this should be?

Greg
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To: Greg Lehey <grog at lemis.com>
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Subject: Re: Why upper case configuration file names in BSD?
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>>>>> "Greg" == Greg Lehey <grog at lemis.com> writes:

Greg> I've just been asked a rather unusual question: when you build a BSD
Greg> kernel, the name of the configuration file is traditionally upper
Greg> case.  Does anybody have insight as to why this should be?

The same reason that Makefile has an upper-case first letter -- so it
appears early in an ls listing, rather than in the middle of a big
long list.

Peter C

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Greg Lehey <grog at lemis.com> wrote:

> I've just been asked a rather unusual question: when you build a BSD
> kernel, the name of the configuration file is traditionally upper
> case.  Does anybody have insight as to why this should be?

Because that's how the founding fathers at Berkeley had it!

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Subject: Re: Why upper case configuration file names in BSD?
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On Fri, Feb 04, 2000 at 08:49:28AM +1030, Greg Lehey wrote:
> I've just been asked a rather unusual question: when you build a BSD
> kernel, the name of the configuration file is traditionally upper
> case.  Does anybody have insight as to why this should be?

I have no knowlegde, but a guess. Berkeley must have had different
machines with different hardware configurations.  Conditional
compilation is done with a dependency flag. GENERIC defines -DGENERIC.
A MICROVAX file would imply -DMICROVAX. It may be for this reason
only, conventions.

	Joerg
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From: Jamie Bowden <ragnar@sysabend.org>
To: Greg Lehey <grog at lemis.com>
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        FreeBSD Chat <chat at FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject: Re: Why upper case configuration file names in BSD?
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On Fri, 4 Feb 2000, Greg Lehey wrote:

:I've just been asked a rather unusual question: when you build a BSD
:kernel, the name of the configuration file is traditionally upper
:case.  Does anybody have insight as to why this should be?

I've always done mine lowercase.  I wasn't aware I was violating any sort
of tradition.

Jamie Bowden

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