From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: grog@lemis.com (Greg Lehey) Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 08:49:28 +1030 Subject: Why upper case configuration file names in BSD? Message-ID: <20000204084928.E26290@freebie.lemis.com> 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 -- Finger grog at lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers Received: (from major at localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id JAA70030 for pups-liszt; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 09:38:03 +1100 (EST) Received: from smtp.sw.oz.au (firewall-user at smtp.sw.oz.au [203.31.96.1]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA70021 for ; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 09:37:54 +1100 (EST) Received: (from peterc at localhost) by smtp.sw.oz.au (8.8.8+Sun/8.8.8) id JAA19456; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 09:37:42 +1100 (EST) From: Peter Chubb MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <14490.822.632534.491258 at swag.sw.oz.au> Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 09:37:42 +1100 (EST) To: Greg Lehey Cc: UNIX Heritage Society , FreeBSD Chat Subject: Re: Why upper case configuration file names in BSD? In-Reply-To: <20000204084928.E26290 at freebie.lemis.com> References: <20000204084928.E26290 at freebie.lemis.com> X-Mailer: VM 6.71 under 21.1 "Gimme a 6 and 5!" XEmacs Lucid (patch 2) Comments: Hyperbole mail buttons accepted, v04.023. Sender: owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk >>>>> "Greg" == Greg Lehey 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 Received: (from major at localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id JAA70141 for pups-liszt; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 09:47:14 +1100 (EST) Received: from meson.jpsystems.com (209-184-70-169.jpsystems.com [209.184.70.169] (may be forged)) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id JAA70132 for ; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 09:47:04 +1100 (EST) Received: by meson.jpsystems.com (5.67/1.35) id AA03410; Thu, 3 Feb 00 16:42:22 -0600 Date: Thu, 3 Feb 00 16:42:22 -0600 From: msokolov@meson.jpsystems.com (Michael Sokolov) Message-Id: <0002032242.AA03410 at meson.jpsystems.com> To: pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Subject: Re: Why upper case configuration file names in BSD? Cc: chat at FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <20000204084928.E26290 at freebie.lemis.com> Sender: owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk 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? Because that's how the founding fathers at Berkeley had it! -- Michael Sokolov Harhan Computer Operation Facility Special Agent 615 N GOOD LATIMER EXPY #4 International Free Computing Task Force DALLAS TX 75204-5852 USA Phone: +1-214-824-7693 ARPA INET: MSOKOLOV at trailing-edge.com or msokolov at meson.jpsystems.com Received: (from major at localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id JAA70286 for pups-liszt; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 09:58:30 +1100 (EST) Received: from begemot.org (negara.cs.waikato.ac.nz [130.217.248.112]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA70281 for ; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 09:58:22 +1100 (EST) Received: (from joerg at localhost) by begemot.org (8.9.3/8.9.2) id MAA26860; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 12:00:00 +1300 (NZDT) (envelope-from joerg) Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 12:00:00 +1300 From: "Joerg B. Micheel" To: Greg Lehey Cc: UNIX Heritage Society , FreeBSD Chat , joerg at begemot.org Subject: Re: Why upper case configuration file names in BSD? Message-ID: <20000204120000.A26832 at begemot.org> References: <20000204084928.E26290 at freebie.lemis.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <20000204084928.E26290 at freebie.lemis.com>; from Greg Lehey on Fri, Feb 04, 2000 at 08:49:28AM +1030 Organization: Begemot Computer Associates Operating-System: ... powered by FreeBSD Sender: owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk 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 -- Joerg B. Micheel Email: Begemot Computer Associates Phone: +64 7 8562148 40 Masters Avenue, Hillcrest Fax: +64 7 8562148 Hamilton, New Zealand Pager: +64 868 38222 Received: (from major at localhost) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) id AAA73735 for pups-liszt; Sat, 5 Feb 2000 00:18:48 +1100 (EST) Received: from moo.sysabend.org (postfix at moo.sysabend.org [209.0.55.68]) by minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA73731 for ; Sat, 5 Feb 2000 00:18:40 +1100 (EST) Received: by moo.sysabend.org (Postfix, from userid 1004) id 675307562; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 05:21:11 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by moo.sysabend.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5B8E61D8E; Fri, 4 Feb 2000 05:21:11 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 05:21:11 -0800 (PST) From: Jamie Bowden To: Greg Lehey Cc: UNIX Heritage Society , FreeBSD Chat Subject: Re: Why upper case configuration file names in BSD? In-Reply-To: <20000204084928.E26290 at freebie.lemis.com> Message-ID: Approved: yep X-representing: Only myself. X-badge: We don't need no stinking badges. X-obligatory-profanity: Fuck X-moo: Moo. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-pups at minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au Precedence: bulk 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 -- "Of course, that's sort of like asking how other than Marketing, Microsoft is different from any other software company..." Kenneth G. Cavness