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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!uunet!in3.uu.net!194.87.0.28!demos!newsfeed.direct.ca!europa.clark.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!venus.sun.com!news2me.EBay.Sun.COM!engnews2.Eng.Sun.COM!sunraf!raf From: raf@sunraf.eng.sun.com (Roger A. Faulkner) Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.x,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.solaris Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list? Date: 15 Jun 1997 23:35:01 GMT Organization: Sun Lines: 25 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <5o1u75$ocn$1@engnews2.Eng.Sun.COM> References: <01bc711f$f03ebea0$101e71c6@microman> <5n7g8s$fki@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <5nci2o$30t@sylph.u-net.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: sunraf.eng.sun.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.shell:46203 comp.os.linux.misc:180841 comp.os.linux.x:64476 comp.unix.bsd.misc:3580 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:43009 gnu.misc.discuss:31816 comp.unix.solaris:109661 For your edification, this is the geneaology of the name "truss", taken from some mail sent by one of Ron Gomes (my cohort wrt /proc in SVR4) or me, dated Sep 26, 1988): ----------------------------------------------------------------- We considered, and discarded, several alternative names for truss(1), including "trace", before settling on "truss". The objection to "trace" is that it's too generic a term and shouldn't be co-opted for a specific use like this; there are lots of other things that one might trace. Among the alternate names we considered were: "ptrace" (but this incorrectly implies a connection with ptrace(2)), "strace" (but this is already used for some streams tracing thing), "tss" for "trace syscalls and signals" (but this is certainly bad), "sst" a permutation of "tss" (but this implies it's blinding fast), "trss" another variation of "tss" (but this is unpronouncable). Adding the obvious vowel gave us "truss", which can be construed to mean "TRace Unix Syscalls and Signals". "truss" seems to have the right combination of mnemonic value and disrespect for authority ("If your program doesn't work, put it in a truss.") It conjures up a mental image which is fairly accurate, considering what the program does. Roger Faulkner roger.faulkner@eng.sun.com