From: chet.ramey@case.edu (Chet Ramey)
Subject: [TUHS] etymology of read -u
Date: Tue, 31 May 2016 08:55:34 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <d1314ee2-e182-2157-7781-2d7eed4b3127@case.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <201605310727.u4V7Rhmp030422@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
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/
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2016-05-31 12:55 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2016-05-31 7:27 Doug McIlroy
2016-05-31 12:55 ` Chet Ramey [this message]
2016-05-31 14:35 ` Joerg Schilling
[not found] ` <CAEoi9W4YTdJ2bJyAKVQqpd48bTLv7GANrtAK271oXnibuo8v6A@mail.gmail.com>
[not found] ` <CAPz8ZkZjLr1Uj-3VLKK1n5xZq=eeHh+HBeTNHbDVxVTKH+CvCw@mail.gmail.com>
2016-05-31 15:57 ` Dan Cross
2016-05-31 16:49 ` Joerg Schilling
2016-06-01 4:14 Doug McIlroy
2016-06-01 4:17 Doug McIlroy
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