* [TUHS] etymology of read -u
@ 2016-06-01 4:17 Doug McIlroy
0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Doug McIlroy @ 2016-06-01 4:17 UTC (permalink / raw)
> I asked Jeff Korn
There's nothing like primary sources. Thanks, Dan.
Doug
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] etymology of read -u
@ 2016-06-01 4:14 Doug McIlroy
0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Doug McIlroy @ 2016-06-01 4:14 UTC (permalink / raw)
> I asked Jeff Korn
There's nothing like primary sources. Thanks, Dan.
doug
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] etymology of read -u
2016-05-31 15:57 ` Dan Cross
@ 2016-05-31 16:49 ` Joerg Schilling
0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Joerg Schilling @ 2016-05-31 16:49 UTC (permalink / raw)
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Dan Cross <crossd at gmail.com> wrote:
> I asked Jeff Korn (David Korn's son), who in turn asked David Korn who
> confirmed that 'read -u' comes from ksh and that 'u' stands for 'unit'.
Thank you for your reply....
Is this "the method" ;-) to get a reply from David since he works at Google?
Jörg
--
EMail:joerg at schily.net (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
joerg.schilling at fokus.fraunhofer.de (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
URL: http://cdrecord.org/private/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/schilytools/files/'
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* [TUHS] etymology of read -u
[not found] ` <CAPz8ZkZjLr1Uj-3VLKK1n5xZq=eeHh+HBeTNHbDVxVTKH+CvCw@mail.gmail.com>
@ 2016-05-31 15:57 ` Dan Cross
2016-05-31 16:49 ` Joerg Schilling
0 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread
From: Dan Cross @ 2016-05-31 15:57 UTC (permalink / raw)
I asked Jeff Korn (David Korn's son), who in turn asked David Korn who
confirmed that 'read -u' comes from ksh and that 'u' stands for 'unit'.
- Dan C.
Yes, indeed. He says:
*I added -u when I added co processes in the mid '80s. The u stands for
unit. It was command to talk about file descriptor unit at that time.*
On Tue, May 31, 2016 at 6:06 AM, Dan Cross <crossd at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey, did your dad do `read -u`?
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Doug McIlroy <doug at cs.dartmouth.edu>
> Date: Tue, May 31, 2016 at 3:27 AM
> Subject: [TUHS] etymology of read -u
> To: tuhs at minnie.tuhs.org
>
>
> What's the mnmonic significance, if any, of the u in
> the bash builtin read -u for reading from a specified
> file descriptor? Evidently both f and d had already been
> taken in analogy to usage in some other commands.
>
> The best I can think of is u as in "tape unit", which
> was common usage back in the days of READ INPUT TAPE 5.
> That would make it the work of an old timer, maybe Dave Korn?
>
>
>
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* [TUHS] etymology of read -u
2016-05-31 7:27 Doug McIlroy
2016-05-31 12:55 ` Chet Ramey
@ 2016-05-31 14:35 ` Joerg Schilling
[not found] ` <CAEoi9W4YTdJ2bJyAKVQqpd48bTLv7GANrtAK271oXnibuo8v6A@mail.gmail.com>
2 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Joerg Schilling @ 2016-05-31 14:35 UTC (permalink / raw)
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Doug McIlroy <doug at cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote:
> What's the mnmonic significance, if any, of the u in
> the bash builtin read -u for reading from a specified
> file descriptor? Evidently both f and d had already been
> taken in analogy to usage in some other commands.
It seems to be a copy from ksh.
Ksh implements a private "print" builtin that also uses -u fd.
Jörg
--
EMail:joerg at schily.net (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
joerg.schilling at fokus.fraunhofer.de (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
URL: http://cdrecord.org/private/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/schilytools/files/'
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] etymology of read -u
2016-05-31 7:27 Doug McIlroy
@ 2016-05-31 12:55 ` Chet Ramey
2016-05-31 14:35 ` Joerg Schilling
[not found] ` <CAEoi9W4YTdJ2bJyAKVQqpd48bTLv7GANrtAK271oXnibuo8v6A@mail.gmail.com>
2 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Chet Ramey @ 2016-05-31 12:55 UTC (permalink / raw)
On 5/31/16 3:27 AM, Doug McIlroy wrote:
> What's the mnmonic significance, if any, of the u in
> the bash builtin read -u for reading from a specified
> file descriptor? Evidently both f and d had already been
> taken in analogy to usage in some other commands.
>
> The best I can think of is u as in "tape unit", which
> was common usage back in the days of READ INPUT TAPE 5.
> That would make it the work of an old timer, maybe Dave Korn?
I picked it up from ksh many years ago, and assumed at the time that it
meant `unit'.
--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU chet at case.edu http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] etymology of read -u
@ 2016-05-31 7:27 Doug McIlroy
2016-05-31 12:55 ` Chet Ramey
` (2 more replies)
0 siblings, 3 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Doug McIlroy @ 2016-05-31 7:27 UTC (permalink / raw)
What's the mnmonic significance, if any, of the u in
the bash builtin read -u for reading from a specified
file descriptor? Evidently both f and d had already been
taken in analogy to usage in some other commands.
The best I can think of is u as in "tape unit", which
was common usage back in the days of READ INPUT TAPE 5.
That would make it the work of an old timer, maybe Dave Korn?
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread
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2016-06-01 4:17 [TUHS] etymology of read -u Doug McIlroy
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2016-06-01 4:14 Doug McIlroy
2016-05-31 7:27 Doug McIlroy
2016-05-31 12:55 ` Chet Ramey
2016-05-31 14:35 ` Joerg Schilling
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2016-05-31 15:57 ` Dan Cross
2016-05-31 16:49 ` Joerg Schilling
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