From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 2865fd8b for ; Thu, 27 Sep 2018 15:34:28 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 87819A1DCD; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 01:34:27 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34583A1DE8; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 01:33:58 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 549849E99B; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 01:33:55 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mercury.lcs.mit.edu (mercury.lcs.mit.edu [18.26.0.122]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0B6DF9E998 for ; Fri, 28 Sep 2018 01:33:55 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11178) id F354118C08E; Thu, 27 Sep 2018 11:33:53 -0400 (EDT) To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org Message-Id: <20180927153353.F354118C08E@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2018 11:33:53 -0400 (EDT) From: jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa) Subject: Re: [TUHS] The origin of /home X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" > From: Dan Cross > particular in sites with lots of users like universities and > production-focused corporate groups The existence of /usr, /usr/bin, /etc, /lib, etc dates back to the Research group at Bell, so I don't think we can look to these other environments for an explanation. > "Hmm. Well, we've got space in /usr: create /usr/bin I seem to recall reading (don't recall where, OTTOMY) an explanation for the creation of /usr/bin, and I think it was performance related; IIRC the issue was that they wanted to keep the directory size down (both for disk block caching, and search time, reasons). Or maybe that was later on, and it was originally created for 'user-maintained' ancillary programs (another vague memory)? > The more intriguing possibility from the antiquarian point of view is > whether someone coined "/home" and then THAT led to the rise of the "home > directory" nomenclature. My memory is that the term "home directory" predates /home - perhaps on other OS's such as TOPS-20, but I don't have time to research that. (I did look quickly in the Multics docs, and it has 'working directory', i.e. current dir - but it refers to the home dir as 'original WD', i.e. the WD at the time of login.) Noel