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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.cis.okstate.edu!nntp.ksu.edu!news.mid.net!mr.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!howland.erols.net!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!diamond.waii.com!zeus.wg.waii.com!not-for-mail From: Mark Whetzel <markw@zeus.wg.waii.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things Date: 8 Nov 1996 19:19:34 GMT Organization: Western Geophysical, Div. of Western Atlas Int'l, Houston, TX Lines: 31 Message-ID: <560146$t9c@mail1.wg.waii.com> References: <55vhpf$q3o@mail1.wg.waii.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: zeus.wg.waii.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 unoff BETA release 960930] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26208 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1444 alt.folklore.computers:124257 Following up to my own post... In comp.unix.misc Mark Whetzel <markw@zeus.wg.waii.com> wrote: : I was having a discussion with some of my co-workers on WHY things : are named as they are in UNIX. Anybody have some of the : tales behind the odd things that bound in unix history? : One question we had of some students we are training: : Why are system processes called 'daemons'? I am getting some GOOD feedback on several possible reasons... : Some of the others I have heard about: the naming of 'biff', grep, yacc. BY this sentence... what I was looking for was OTHER types of 'funny' unix commands/programs/procedures and their naming.. I know about biff, grep and yacc... Sort of like to make a collection of the 'in-jokes' and other strange reasons things are like they are in unix.. E-mail prefered... I'll summarize the best 'funnies' that I get, and that get the most common and/or strange reasons. Thanks -- Mark Whetzel My comments are my own, not my company's. Western Geophysical - A division of Western Atlas International Inc., A Subsidary of Western Atlas Inc. DOMAIN addr: mark.whetzel@waii.com VOICE: (713) 963-2544 FAX: (713) 963-2758