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* [TUHS] UNIX Backslash History
@ 2019-10-27 20:31 Doug McIlroy
  2019-10-27 20:42 ` Richard Salz
  2019-10-27 20:46 ` Bakul Shah
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 17+ messages in thread
From: Doug McIlroy @ 2019-10-27 20:31 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs

> What is the special meaning of using / as directory partition in UNIX? And \ as  the escape character.

\ came from Multics. The first day Multics ran at Bell Labs Bob Morris
famously typed backslash-newline at the login prompt and crashed the
system.

Multics had a hierarchical file system, too, but I don't recall how
pathnames were punctuated.

Doug

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 17+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] UNIX Backslash History
@ 2019-10-28 15:51 Noel Chiappa
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 17+ messages in thread
From: Noel Chiappa @ 2019-10-28 15:51 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs; +Cc: jnc

    > From: Charles Anthony

    >> I think it was >user_dir_dir>Group>User, wasn't it?

    > user_dir_dir>Project>User

Oh, right. Too many years spent on Unix! :-)

    > "Names" are aliases, similar to soft links

I feel like they are more similar to hard links; they belong to a segment, and
if the name is given to another segment, and the original segment has only
that name, it goes away. (See the discussion under "add_name" in the MPM
'Commands and Active Fuinctions'). Also, Multics does real soft links (too),
so names can't be soft links! :-)

	Noel

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 17+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] UNIX Backslash History
@ 2019-10-27 21:31 Noel Chiappa
  2019-10-27 21:51 ` Charles Anthony
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 17+ messages in thread
From: Noel Chiappa @ 2019-10-27 21:31 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs; +Cc: jnc

    > From: Charles Anthony

    > /home/CAnthony     

I think it was >user_dir_dir>Group>User, wasn't it? I seem to remember my
homedir on MIT-Multics was >udd>CSR>JNChiappa?

And I wonder if the 'dd' directory on PDP-7 Unix owe anything to 'udd'?

Getting back to the original query, I'm wondering if '/' was picked
as it wasn't shifted, unlike '>'?

   Noel

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 17+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] UNIX Backslash History
@ 2019-10-26  9:39 Caipenghui
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 17+ messages in thread
From: Caipenghui @ 2019-10-26  9:39 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: TUHS main list

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Hello everyone,

What is the special meaning of using / as directory partition in UNIX? And \ as the escape character.

Caipenghui

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 17+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2019-10-28 20:43 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 17+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2019-10-27 20:31 [TUHS] UNIX Backslash History Doug McIlroy
2019-10-27 20:42 ` Richard Salz
2019-10-27 20:49   ` Charles Anthony
2019-10-27 23:01     ` Grant Taylor via TUHS
2019-10-28  1:11       ` Steve Nickolas
2019-10-28 12:00         ` Michael Kjörling
2019-10-28 13:44           ` Clem Cole
2019-10-28 15:08           ` Steve Nickolas
2019-10-28 18:47             ` Dave Horsfall
2019-10-28 20:43               ` Paul Winalski
2019-10-27 20:46 ` Bakul Shah
2019-10-28 17:36   ` Anthony Martin
2019-10-28 18:17     ` Charles Anthony
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2019-10-28 15:51 Noel Chiappa
2019-10-27 21:31 Noel Chiappa
2019-10-27 21:51 ` Charles Anthony
2019-10-26  9:39 Caipenghui

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