sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) (12/02/89)
Here are the most recent changes to parts 1 and 2 of the
Frequently Asked Questions postings.
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a08391 Fri Dec 1 15:11:14 1989
--- part1 Fri Dec 1 14:49:59 1989
***************
*** 1,5 ****
--- 1,6 ----
Subject: Welcome to comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards [Monthly posting]
+ [Last changed: $Date: 89/12/01 14:49:54 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
Comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards are two of the most popular
and highest volume newsgroups on Usenet. This article is a monthly
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a08405 Fri Dec 1 15:11:17 1989
--- part2 Fri Dec 1 14:50:16 1989
***************
*** 1,5 ****
--- 1,7 ----
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
+ [Last changed: $Date: 89/12/01 14:50:10 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
+
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
ask these questions again, they've been answered plenty of times
***************
*** 19,25 ****
How do I check to see if there are characters to be read without
actually reading?
How do I find the name of an open file?
! How do I rename "*.foo" to "*.bar"?
Why do I get [some strange error message] when I "rsh host command" ?
How do I find out the creation time of a file?
How do I use "rsh" without having the rsh hang around
--- 21,27 ----
How do I check to see if there are characters to be read without
actually reading?
How do I find the name of an open file?
! How do I rename "*.foo" to "*.bar", or change file names to lowercase?
Why do I get [some strange error message] when I "rsh host command" ?
How do I find out the creation time of a file?
How do I use "rsh" without having the rsh hang around
***************
*** 28,36 ****
How do I {set an environment variable, change directory} inside a
shell script and have that change affect my current shell?
Why doesn't find's "{}" symbol do what I want?
What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
stand for?
! How do I pronounce "vi"?
While these are all legitimate questions, they seem to crop up in
--- 30,41 ----
How do I {set an environment variable, change directory} inside a
shell script and have that change affect my current shell?
Why doesn't find's "{}" symbol do what I want?
+ How do I redirect stdout and stderr separately in csh?
+ How do I set the permissions on a symbolic link?
What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
stand for?
! How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
!
While these are all legitimate questions, they seem to crop up in
***************
*** 133,144 ****
Put this in your .cshrc - customize the prompt variable
the way you want.
! alias cd 'chdir \!* && set prompt="${cwd}% "'
If you use pushd and popd, you'll also need
! alias pushd 'pushd \!* && set prompt="${cwd}% "'
! alias popd 'popd \!* && set prompt="${cwd}% "'
Some C shells don't keep a $cwd variable - you can use
`pwd` instead.
--- 138,151 ----
Put this in your .cshrc - customize the prompt variable
the way you want.
! alias setprompt 'set prompt="${cwd}% "'
! setprompt # to set the initial prompt
! alias cd 'chdir \!* && setprompt'
If you use pushd and popd, you'll also need
! alias pushd 'pushd \!* && setprompt'
! alias popd 'popd \!* && setprompt'
Some C shells don't keep a $cwd variable - you can use
`pwd` instead.
***************
*** 145,152 ****
If you just want the last component of the current directory
in your prompt ("mail% " instead of "/usr/spool/mail% ")
! you can do
! alias cd 'chdir \!* && set prompt="$cwd:t% "'
Some older csh's get the meaning of && and || reversed.
--- 152,160 ----
If you just want the last component of the current directory
in your prompt ("mail% " instead of "/usr/spool/mail% ")
! you can use
!
! alias setprompt 'set prompt="$cwd:t% "'
Some older csh's get the meaning of && and || reversed.
***************
*** 163,169 ****
If you have a newer version of the Bourne Shell (SVR2 or newer)
you can use a shell function to make your own command, "xcd" say:
! xcd { cd $* ; PS1="`pwd` $ "; }
If you have an older Bourne shell, it's complicated but not impossible.
Here's one way. Add this to your .profile file:
--- 171,177 ----
If you have a newer version of the Bourne Shell (SVR2 or newer)
you can use a shell function to make your own command, "xcd" say:
! xcd() { cd $* ; PS1="`pwd` $ "; }
If you have an older Bourne shell, it's complicated but not impossible.
Here's one way. Add this to your .profile file:
***************
*** 301,307 ****
even exist is going to take some time.
! 9) How do I rename "*.foo" to "*.bar"?
Why doesn't "mv *.foo *.bar" work? Think about how the shell
expands wildcards. "*.foo" "*.bar" are expanded before the mv
--- 309,315 ----
even exist is going to take some time.
! 9) How do I rename "*.foo" to "*.bar", or change file names to lowercase?
Why doesn't "mv *.foo *.bar" work? Think about how the shell
expands wildcards. "*.foo" "*.bar" are expanded before the mv
***************
*** 345,351 ****
If you don't have "basename" or want to do something like
renaming foo.* to bar.*, you can use something like "sed" to
strip apart the original file name in other ways, but
! the general looping idea is the same.
A program called "ren" that does this job nicely was posted
to comp.sources.unix some time ago. It lets you use
--- 353,359 ----
If you don't have "basename" or want to do something like
renaming foo.* to bar.*, you can use something like "sed" to
strip apart the original file name in other ways, but
! the general looping idea is the same.
A program called "ren" that does this job nicely was posted
to comp.sources.unix some time ago. It lets you use
***************
*** 352,357 ****
--- 360,407 ----
ren '*.foo' '#1.bar'
+ Shell loops like the above can also be used to translate
+ file names from upper to lower case or vice versa. You could use
+ something like this to rename uppercase files to lowercase:
+
+ C Shell:
+ foreach f ( * )
+ mv $f `echo $f | tr A-Z a-z`
+ end
+ Bourne Shell:
+ for f in *; do
+ mv $f `echo $f | tr A-Z a-z`
+ done
+
+ If you wanted to be really thorough and handle files with
+ `funny' names (embedded blanks or whatever) you'd need to use
+
+ Bourne Shell:
+
+ for f in *; do
+ eval mv '"$i"' \"`echo "$i" | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`\"
+ done
+
+ If you have the "perl" language installed, you may find this rename
+ script by Larry Wall very useful. It can be used to accomplish a
+ wide variety of filename changes.
+
+ #!/usr/bin/perl
+ #
+ # rename script examples from lwall:
+ # rename 's/\.orig$//' *.orig
+ # rename 'y/A-Z/a-z/ unless /^Make/' *
+ # rename '$_ .= ".bad"' *.f
+ # rename 'print "$_: "; s/foo/bar/ if <stdin> =~ /^y/i' *
+
+ $op = shift;
+ for (@ARGV) {
+ $was = $_;
+ eval $op;
+ die $@ if $@;
+ rename($was,$_) unless $was eq $_;
+ }
+
10) Why do I get [some strange error message] when I "rsh host command" ?
***************
*** 534,540 ****
in their names.
! 16) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
stand for?
awk = "Aho Weinberger and Kernighan"
--- 584,611 ----
in their names.
! 16) How do I redirect stdout and stderr separately in csh?
!
! In csh, you can redirect stdout with ">", or stdout and stderr
! together with ">&" but there is no direct way to redirect
! stderr only. The best you can do is
!
! ( command >stdout_file ) >&stderr_file
!
! which runs "command" in a subshell; stdout is redirected inside
! the subshell to stdout_file, and both stdout and stderr from the
! subshell are redirected to stderr_file, but by this point stdout
! has already been redirected so only stderr actually winds up in
! stderr_file.
!
! 17) How do I set the permissions on a symbolic link?
!
! Permissions on a symbolic link don't really mean anything. The
! only permissions that count are the permissions on the file that
! the link points to.
!
!
! 18) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
stand for?
awk = "Aho Weinberger and Kernighan"
***************
*** 618,632 ****
biff = "biff"
! This command, which turns on asynchronous mail notification,
! was allegedly named after someone's dog that barked whenever
! the postman arrived. Or so the story goes.
!
!
! Don Libes' book "Life with Unix" contains lots more of
! these tidbits.
! 17) How do I pronounce "vi" ?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
--- 689,711 ----
biff = "biff"
! This command, which turns on asynchronous mail notification,
! was actually named after a dog at Berkeley.
!
! I can confirm the origin of biff, if you're interested. Biff
! was Heidi Stettner's dog, back when Heidi (and I, and Bill Joy)
! were all grad students at U.C. Berkeley and the early versions
! of BSD were being developed. Biff was popular among the
! residents of Evans Hall, and was known for barking at the
! mailman, hence the name of the command.
!
! Confirmation courtesy of Eric Cooper, Carnegie Mellon
! University
!
! Don Libes' book "Life with Unix" contains lots more of these
! tidbits.
! 19) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
***************
*** 638,643 ****
--- 717,865 ----
and that there are lots of ways to say "#" or "/*" or "!" or
"tty" or "/etc". No one pronunciation is correct - enjoy the regional
dialects and accents.
+
+ Since this topic keeps coming up on the net, here is a comprehensive
+ pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past.
+ Origin unknown - please let me know if you know where it came from,
+ and I'll attribute it properly.
+
+
+ Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
+ with +, and names deserving futher explanation are marked with a #. The
+ explanations will be given at the very end.
+
+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ -- SINGLE CHARACTERS --
+
+ SPACE, blank
+
+ ! EXCLAMATION POINT, exclamation mark, exclamation, exclam, excl, clam,
+ bang#, shout, yell, shriek, pling, factorial, ball-bat, smash, cuss,
+ wow, hey, boing
+
+ " QUOTATION MARK, quote, double quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears,
+ double ping, double glitch
+
+ # CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
+ hash, fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe,
+ scratch, scratch mark, gardengate, gate, hak, oof, rake, sink
+
+ $ DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#,
+ ding, big-money
+
+ % PERCENT SIGN, percent, mod+, shift-5, double-oh-seven, grapes
+
+ & AMPERSAND, and, amper, address+, shift-7, andpersand, snowman,
+ bitand+, donald duck#, daemon
+
+ ' APOSTROPHE, single quote, quote, tick, prime, irk, pop, spark, glitch
+
+ * ASTERISK, star, splat, spider, aster, times, wildcard*, gear, dingle,
+ (Nathan) Hale#, bug, gem, twinkle
+
+ () PARENTHESES, parens, round brackets, bananas, ears, bowlegs,
+ parenthesee (singular only), weapons
+ ( LEFT PARENTHESIS, paren, so, wax, parenthesee, open, sad
+ ) RIGHT PARENTHESIS, thesis, already, wane, unparenthesee, close, happy
+
+ + PLUS SIGN, plus, add, cross, and, intersection, and
+
+ , COMMA, tail
+
+ - HYPHEN, minus, minus sign, dash, dak, option, flag, negative,
+ negative sign, worm, bithorpe#
+
+ . PERIOD, dot, decimal, decimal point, radix point, point, spot, full stop,
+ put#, floor
+
+ / SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
+ across#, compress#, spare
+
+ : COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots
+
+ ; SEMICOLON, semi, hybrid
+
+ <> ANGLE BRACKETS, angles, funnels, brokets
+ < LESS THAN, less, read from*, from*, in*, comesfrom*, crunch,
+ sucks
+ > GREATER THAN, more, write to*, into/toward*, out*, gazinta*, zap,
+ blows
+
+ = EQUAL SIGN, equals, equal, gets, quadrathorpe#, half-mesh
+
+ ? QUESTION MARK, question, query, whatmark, what, wildchar*, huh, ques,
+ kwes, quiz, quark, hook
+
+ @ AT SIGN, at, each, vortex, whorl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape, cat,
+ snable-a#, trunk-a#, rose, cabbage, Mercantile symbol
+
+ [] BRACKETS, square brackets, U-turns, edged parentheses, mimics
+ [ LEFT BRACKET, bracket, bra, square, opensquare
+ ] RIGHT BRACKET, unbracket, ket, unsquare, close
+
+ \ BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, backslant, backwhack, backslat,
+ escape*, backslak, bak, reduce#
+
+ ^ CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop,
+ up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, to-the, fang, sharkfin,
+ and#, xor+, wok, trap
+
+ _ UNDERSCORE, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm, blank
+
+ ` GRAVE, grave accent, accent, backquote, left/open quote, backprime,
+ unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, backtick, push, backglitch,
+ backping
+
+ {} BRACES, curly braces, squiggly braces, curly brackets, squiggle brackets,
+ Tuborgs#, ponds
+ { LEFT BRACE, brace, curly, leftit, embrace, openbrace, begin+
+ } RIGHT BRACE, unbrace, uncurly, rytit, bracelet, close, end+
+
+ | VERTICAL BAR, pipe*, pipe to*, vertical line, broken line#, bar, or+,
+ bitor+, vert, v-bar, spike, to*, gazinta*, thru*, pipesinta*, tube,
+ mark, whack, gutter, wall
+
+ ~ TILDE, twiddle, tilda, tildee, wave, squiggle, swung dash, approx,
+ wiggle, enyay#, home*, worm
+
+
+ -- MULTIPLE CHARACTER STRINGS --
+
+ !? interrobang (one overlapped character)
+ /* slashterix+
+ */ asterslash+
+ >> appends*, cat-astrophe
+ -> arrow+, pointer to+, hiccup+
+ #! sh'bang, wallop
+ \!* bash-bang-splat
+ () nil#
+ && and+, amper-amper, succeeds-then*
+ || or+, fails-then*
+
+
+ -- NOTES --
+
+ ! bang comes from old card punch phenom where punching ! code made a
+ loud noise
+ # octothorpe from Bell System
+ $ string from BASIC
+ $ escape from TOPS-10
+ & donald duck from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck"
+ * splat from DEC "spider" glyph
+ * Nathan Hale "I have but one asterisk for my country."
+ = quadrathorpe half an octothorpe
+ - bithorpe half a quadrathorpe (So what's a monothorpe?)
+ . put Victor Borge on Electric Company
+ / across APL
+ / compress APL
+ @ snable-a from Danish; may translate as "trunk-a"
+ @ trunk-a "trunk" = "elephant nose"
+ ^ and from formal logic
+ \ reduce APL
+ {} Tuborgs from advertizing for well-known Danish beverage
+ | broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
+ ~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde
+ () nil LISP
-- sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) (01/04/90)
Here are the most recent changes to parts 1 and 2 of the
Frequently Asked Questions articles, which have just been
posted. You can find the full articles elsewhere in
comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards.
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a13729 Wed Jan 3 15:27:42 1990
--- part2 Wed Jan 3 15:27:30 1990
***************
*** 1,6 ****
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 89/12/01 14:50:10 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
--- 1,6 ----
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/01/03 15:27:26 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
***************
*** 11,42 ****
This article includes answers to:
! How do I remove a file whose name begins with a "-" ?
! How do I remove a file with funny characters in the filename ?
! How do I get a recursive directory listing?
! How do I get the current directory into my prompt?
! How do I read characters from a terminal without requiring the user
! to hit RETURN?
! How do I read characters from the terminal in a shell script?
! How do I check to see if there are characters to be read without
! actually reading?
! How do I find the name of an open file?
! How do I rename "*.foo" to "*.bar", or change file names to lowercase?
! Why do I get [some strange error message] when I "rsh host command" ?
! How do I find out the creation time of a file?
! How do I use "rsh" without having the rsh hang around
! until the remote command has completed?
! How do I truncate a file?
! How do I {set an environment variable, change directory} inside a
! shell script and have that change affect my current shell?
! Why doesn't find's "{}" symbol do what I want?
! How do I redirect stdout and stderr separately in csh?
! How do I set the permissions on a symbolic link?
! What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
! stand for?
! How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
While these are all legitimate questions, they seem to crop up in
comp.unix.questions on an annual basis, usually followed by plenty
--- 11,48 ----
This article includes answers to:
! 1) How do I remove a file whose name begins with a "-" ?
! 2) How do I remove a file with funny characters in the filename ?
! 3) How do I get a recursive directory listing?
! 4) How do I get the current directory into my prompt?
! 5) How do I read characters from a terminal without requiring the user
! to hit RETURN?
! 6) How do I read characters from the terminal in a shell script?
! 7) How do I check to see if there are characters to be read without
! actually reading?
! 8) How do I find the name of an open file?
! 9) How do I rename "*.foo" to "*.bar", or change file names
! to lowercase?
! 10) Why do I get [some strange error message] when I
! "rsh host command" ?
! 11) How do I find out the creation time of a file?
! 12) How do I use "rsh" without having the rsh hang around
! until the remote command has completed?
! 13) How do I truncate a file?
! 14) How do I {set an environment variable, change directory} inside a
! shell script and have that change affect my current shell?
! 15) Why doesn't find's "{}" symbol do what I want?
! 16) How do I redirect stdout and stderr separately in csh?
! 17) How do I set the permissions on a symbolic link?
! 18) When someone refers to 'rn(1)' or 'ctime(3)', what does
! the number in parentheses mean?
! 19) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
! stand for?
! 20) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
+ If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 14, and want to skip
+ everything else, you can search ahead for the regular expression "^14)".
While these are all legitimate questions, they seem to crop up in
comp.unix.questions on an annual basis, usually followed by plenty
***************
*** 231,237 ****
--- 237,250 ----
exit(0);
}
+ You might like to check out the documentation for the "curses"
+ library of portable screen functions. Often if you're interested
+ in single-character I/O like this, you're also interested in doing
+ some sort of screen display control, and the curses library
+ provides various portable routines for both functions.
+
+
6) How do I read characters from the terminal in a shell script?
In sh, use read. It is most common to use a loop like
***************
*** 366,376 ****
C Shell:
foreach f ( * )
! mv $f `echo $f | tr A-Z a-z`
end
Bourne Shell:
for f in *; do
! mv $f `echo $f | tr A-Z a-z`
done
If you wanted to be really thorough and handle files with
--- 379,389 ----
C Shell:
foreach f ( * )
! mv $f `echo $f | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
end
Bourne Shell:
for f in *; do
! mv $f `echo $f | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
done
If you wanted to be really thorough and handle files with
***************
*** 379,387 ****
Bourne Shell:
for f in *; do
! eval mv '"$i"' \"`echo "$i" | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`\"
done
If you have the "perl" language installed, you may find this rename
script by Larry Wall very useful. It can be used to accomplish a
wide variety of filename changes.
--- 392,405 ----
Bourne Shell:
for f in *; do
! eval mv '"$f"' \"`echo "$f" | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`\"
done
+ (Some versions of "tr" require the [ and ], some don't. It happens
+ to be harmless to include them in this particular example; versions of
+ tr that don't want the [] will conveniently think they are supposed
+ to translate '[' to '[' and ']' to ']').
+
If you have the "perl" language installed, you may find this rename
script by Larry Wall very useful. It can be used to accomplish a
wide variety of filename changes.
***************
*** 563,568 ****
--- 581,593 ----
You could then use
find /path -type d -exec ./doit {} \;
+
+ Or if you want to avoid the "./doit" shell script, you can use
+
+ find /path -type d -exec sh -c 'command $0/*' {} \;
+
+ (This works because within the 'command' of "sh -c 'command' A B C ...",
+ $0 expands to A, $1 to B, and so on.)
If all you're trying to do is cut down on the number of times
***************
*** 604,611 ****
only permissions that count are the permissions on the file that
the link points to.
! 18) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
stand for?
awk = "Aho Weinberger and Kernighan"
--- 629,672 ----
only permissions that count are the permissions on the file that
the link points to.
+ 18) When someone refers to 'rn(1)' or 'ctime(3)', what does
+ the number in parentheses mean?
! It looks like some sort of function call, but it isn't.
! These numbers refer to the section of the "Unix manual" where
! the appropriate documentation can be found. You could type
! "man 3 ctime" to look up the manual page for "ctime" in section 3
! of the manual.
!
! The standard manual sections are:
!
! 1 User-level commands
! 2 System calls
! 3 Library functions
! 4 Devices and device drivers
! 5 File formats
! 6 Games
! 7 Various miscellaneous stuff - macro packages etc.
! 8 System maintenance and operation commands
!
!
! Each section has an introduction, which you can read with "man # intro"
! where # is the section number.
!
! Sometimes the number is necessary to differentiate between a
! command and a library routine or system call of the same name. For
! instance, your system may have "time(1)", a manual page about the
! 'time' command for timing programs, and also "time(3)", a manual
! page about the 'time' subroutine for determining the current time.
! You can use "man 1 time" or "man 3 time" to specify which "time"
! man page you're interested in.
!
! You'll often find other sections for local programs or
! even subsections of the sections above - Ultrix has
! sections 3m, 3n, 3x and 3yp among others.
!
!
! 19) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
stand for?
awk = "Aho Weinberger and Kernighan"
***************
*** 705,711 ****
Don Libes' book "Life with Unix" contains lots more of these
tidbits.
! 19) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
--- 766,772 ----
Don Libes' book "Life with Unix" contains lots more of these
tidbits.
! 20) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
***************
*** 719,862 ****
dialects and accents.
Since this topic keeps coming up on the net, here is a comprehensive
! pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past.
! Origin unknown - please let me know if you know where it came from,
! and I'll attribute it properly.
Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
! with +, and names deserving futher explanation are marked with a #. The
! explanations will be given at the very end.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- SINGLE CHARACTERS --
! SPACE, blank
! ! EXCLAMATION POINT, exclamation mark, exclamation, exclam, excl, clam,
bang#, shout, yell, shriek, pling, factorial, ball-bat, smash, cuss,
! wow, hey, boing
! " QUOTATION MARK, quote, double quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears,
! double ping, double glitch
# CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
hash, fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe,
! scratch, scratch mark, gardengate, gate, hak, oof, rake, sink
$ DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#,
! ding, big-money
! % PERCENT SIGN, percent, mod+, shift-5, double-oh-seven, grapes
& AMPERSAND, and, amper, address+, shift-7, andpersand, snowman,
! bitand+, donald duck#, daemon
! ' APOSTROPHE, single quote, quote, tick, prime, irk, pop, spark, glitch
* ASTERISK, star, splat, spider, aster, times, wildcard*, gear, dingle,
! (Nathan) Hale#, bug, gem, twinkle
! () PARENTHESES, parens, round brackets, bananas, ears, bowlegs,
! parenthesee (singular only), weapons
! ( LEFT PARENTHESIS, paren, so, wax, parenthesee, open, sad
! ) RIGHT PARENTHESIS, thesis, already, wane, unparenthesee, close, happy
!
! + PLUS SIGN, plus, add, cross, and, intersection, and
!
! , COMMA, tail
!
! - HYPHEN, minus, minus sign, dash, dak, option, flag, negative,
! negative sign, worm, bithorpe#
! . PERIOD, dot, decimal, decimal point, radix point, point, spot, full stop,
! put#, floor
/ SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
! across#, compress#, spare
! : COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots
! ; SEMICOLON, semi, hybrid
! <> ANGLE BRACKETS, angles, funnels, brokets
< LESS THAN, less, read from*, from*, in*, comesfrom*, crunch,
! sucks
> GREATER THAN, more, write to*, into/toward*, out*, gazinta*, zap,
! blows
! = EQUAL SIGN, equals, equal, gets, quadrathorpe#, half-mesh
? QUESTION MARK, question, query, whatmark, what, wildchar*, huh, ques,
! kwes, quiz, quark, hook
!
! @ AT SIGN, at, each, vortex, whorl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape, cat,
! snable-a#, trunk-a#, rose, cabbage, Mercantile symbol
! [] BRACKETS, square brackets, U-turns, edged parentheses, mimics
! [ LEFT BRACKET, bracket, bra, square, opensquare
! ] RIGHT BRACKET, unbracket, ket, unsquare, close
!
! \ BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, backslant, backwhack, backslat,
! escape*, backslak, bak, reduce#
!
! ^ CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop,
! up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, to-the, fang, sharkfin,
! and#, xor+, wok, trap
! _ UNDERSCORE, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm, blank
! ` GRAVE, grave accent, accent, backquote, left/open quote, backprime,
unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, backtick, push, backglitch,
! backping
{} BRACES, curly braces, squiggly braces, curly brackets, squiggle brackets,
! Tuborgs#, ponds
! { LEFT BRACE, brace, curly, leftit, embrace, openbrace, begin+
! } RIGHT BRACE, unbrace, uncurly, rytit, bracelet, close, end+
| VERTICAL BAR, pipe*, pipe to*, vertical line, broken line#, bar, or+,
bitor+, vert, v-bar, spike, to*, gazinta*, thru*, pipesinta*, tube,
! mark, whack, gutter, wall
~ TILDE, twiddle, tilda, tildee, wave, squiggle, swung dash, approx,
! wiggle, enyay#, home*, worm
-- MULTIPLE CHARACTER STRINGS --
!? interrobang (one overlapped character)
! /* slashterix+
! */ asterslash+
! >> appends*, cat-astrophe
-> arrow+, pointer to+, hiccup+
#! sh'bang, wallop
\!* bash-bang-splat
() nil#
! && and+, amper-amper, succeeds-then*
! || or+, fails-then*
-- NOTES --
! bang comes from old card punch phenom where punching ! code made a
! loud noise
# octothorpe from Bell System
$ string from BASIC
$ escape from TOPS-10
& donald duck from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck"
* splat from DEC "spider" glyph
* Nathan Hale "I have but one asterisk for my country."
= quadrathorpe half an octothorpe
- bithorpe half a quadrathorpe (So what's a monothorpe?)
. put Victor Borge on Electric Company
/ across APL
/ compress APL
@ snable-a from Danish; may translate as "trunk-a"
@ trunk-a "trunk" = "elephant nose"
! ^ and from formal logic
\ reduce APL
{} Tuborgs from advertizing for well-known Danish beverage
| broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde
() nil LISP
--- 780,961 ----
dialects and accents.
Since this topic keeps coming up on the net, here is a comprehensive
! pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past. This list
! is maintained by Maarten Litmaath, maart@cs.vu.nl .
Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
! with +, names derived from (Net)Hack are marked with & and names deserving
! futher explanation are marked with a #. The explanations will be given at
! the very end.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- SINGLE CHARACTERS --
! SPACE, blank, ghost&
! ! EXCLAMATION POINT, exclamation (mark), (ex)clam, excl, wow, hey, boing,
bang#, shout, yell, shriek, pling, factorial, ball-bat, smash, cuss,
! store#, potion&, not*+
! " QUOTATION MARK, (double) quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears,
! double ping, double glitch, amulet&, web&
# CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
hash, fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe,
! scratch (mark), (garden)gate, hak, oof, rake, sink&, corridor&,
! unequal#
$ DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#,
! ding, big-money, gold&
! % PERCENT SIGN, percent, mod+, shift-5, double-oh-seven, grapes, food&
& AMPERSAND, and, amper, address+, shift-7, andpersand, snowman,
! bitand+, donald duck#, daemon&, background*
! ' APOSTROPHE, (single) quote, tick, prime, irk, pop, spark, glitch,
! lurker above&
* ASTERISK, star, splat, spider, aster, times, wildcard*, gear, dingle,
! (Nathan) Hale#, bug, gem&, twinkle, funny button#, pine cone, glob*
! () PARENTHESES, parens, round brackets, bananas, ears, bowlegs
! ( LEFT PARENTHESIS, (open) paren, so, wane, parenthesee, open, sad,
! tool&
! ) RIGHT PARENTHESIS, already, wax, unparenthesee, close (paren), happy,
! thesis, weapon&
!
! + PLUS SIGN, plus, add, cross, and, intersection, door&, spellbook&
!
! , COMMA, tail, trapper&
!
! - HYPHEN, minus (sign), dash, dak, option, flag, negative (sign), worm,
! bithorpe#
! . PERIOD, dot, decimal (point), (radix) point, spot, full stop,
! put#, floor&
/ SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
! across#, compress#, spare, divided-by, wand&
! : COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon&
! ; SEMICOLON, semi, hybrid, giant eel&, go-on#
! <> ANGLE BRACKETS, angles, funnels, brokets, pointy brackets
< LESS THAN, less, read from*, from*, in*, comesfrom*, crunch,
! sucks, left chevron#, open pointy (brack[et]), bra#, upstairs&
> GREATER THAN, more, write to*, into/toward*, out*, gazinta*, zap,
! blows, right chevron#, closing pointy (brack[et]), ket#, downstairs&
! = EQUAL SIGN, equal(s), gets, becomes, quadrathorpe#, half-mesh, ring&
? QUESTION MARK, question, query, whatmark, what, wildchar*, huh, ques,
! kwes, quiz, quark, hook, scroll&
! @ AT SIGN, at, each, vortex, whirl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape, cat,
! snable-a#, trunk-a#, rose, cabbage, Mercantile symbol, strudel#,
! fetch#, shopkeeper&, human&
!
! [] BRACKETS, square brackets, U-turns, edged parentheses
! [ LEFT BRACKET, bracket, bra, (left) square (brack[et]), opensquare,
! armor&
! ] RIGHT BRACKET, unbracket, ket, right square (brack[et]), unsquare, close,
! mimic&
!
! \ BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, (back)slant, backwhack, backslat,
! escape*, backslak, bak, reduce#, opulent throne&
!
! ^ CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, (top)hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop,
! up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, power, to-the(-power), fang,
! sharkfin, and#, xor+, wok, trap&, pointer#, pipe*
! _ UNDERSCORE, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm, blank,
! chain&, gets#
! ` GRAVE, (grave) accent, backquote, left/open quote, backprime,
unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, backtick, push, backglitch,
! backping, execute#, boulder&, rock&
{} BRACES, curly braces, squiggly braces, curly brackets, squiggle brackets,
! Tuborgs#, ponds, curly chevrons#, squirrly braces, hitchcocks#
! { LEFT BRACE, brace, curly, leftit, embrace, openbrace, begin+,
! fountain&
! } RIGHT BRACE, unbrace, uncurly, rytit, bracelet, close, end+, a pool&
| VERTICAL BAR, pipe*, pipe to*, vertical line, broken line#, bar, or+,
bitor+, vert, v-bar, spike, to*, gazinta*, thru*, pipesinta*, tube,
! mark, whack, gutter, wall&
~ TILDE, twiddle, tilda, tildee, wave, squiggle, swung dash, approx,
! wiggle, enyay#, home*, worm, not+
-- MULTIPLE CHARACTER STRINGS --
!? interrobang (one overlapped character)
! */ asterslash+, times-div#
! /* slashterix+, slashaster
! := becomes#
! <- gets
! << left-shift+, double smaller
! <> unequal#
! >> appends*, cat-astrophe, right-shift+, double greater
-> arrow+, pointer to+, hiccup+
#! sh'bang, wallop
\!* bash-bang-splat
() nil#
! && and+, and-and+, amper-amper, succeeds-then*
! || or+, or-or+, fails-then*
-- NOTES --
! bang comes from old card punch phenom where punching ! code made a
! loud noise; however, this pronunciation is used in the (non-
! computerized) publishing and typesetting industry in the U.S.
! too, so ...
! ! store from FORTH
# octothorpe from Bell System
+ # unequal e.g. Modula-2
$ string from BASIC
$ escape from TOPS-10
& donald duck from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck"
* splat from DEC "spider" glyph
* Nathan Hale "I have but one asterisk for my country."
+ * funny button at Pacific Bell, * was referred to by employees as the "funny
+ button", which did not please management at all when it became
+ part of the corporate logo of Pacific Telesis, the holding
+ company ...
+ */ times-div from FORTH
= quadrathorpe half an octothorpe
- bithorpe half a quadrathorpe (So what's a monothorpe?)
. put Victor Borge on Electric Company
/ across APL
/ compress APL
+ := becomes e.g. Pascal
+ ; go-on Algol68
+ < left chevron from the military: worn vertically on the sleeve to signify
+ rating
+ < bra from quantum mechanics
+ <> unequal e.g. Pascal
+ > right chevron see "< left chevron"
+ > ket from quantum mechanics
@ snable-a from Danish; may translate as "trunk-a"
@ trunk-a "trunk" = "elephant nose"
! @ strudel as in Austrian apple cake
! @ fetch from FORTH
\ reduce APL
+ ^ and from formal logic
+ ^ pointer from PASCAL
+ _ gets some alternative representation of underscore resembles a
+ backarrow
+ ` execute from shell command substitution
{} Tuborgs from advertizing for well-known Danish beverage
+ {} curly chevr. see "< left chevron"
+ {} hitchcocks from the old Alfred Hitchcock show, with the stylized profile
+ of the man
| broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde
() nil LISPsahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) (02/04/90)
Here are the most recent changes to parts 1 and 2 of the
Frequently Asked Questions articles, which have just been
posted. You can find the full articles elsewhere in
comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. You can also ftp
the most recent version from iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (129.79.254.192),
where it's "pub/Unix-Questions.part1" and "pub/Unix-Questions.part2".
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a01782 Sun Feb 4 03:12:54 1990
--- part2 Sun Feb 4 03:12:44 1990
***************
*** 1,6 ****
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/01/03 15:27:26 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
--- 1,6 ----
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/02/04 03:12:39 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
***************
*** 479,485 ****
rsh machine -n 'command >/dev/null 2>&1 </dev/null &'
! why? "-n" attaches rsh's stdin to /dev/null so you could run the
complete rsh command in the background on the LOCAL machine.
Thus "-n" is equivalent to another specific "< /dev/null".
Furthermore, the input/output redirections on the REMOTE machine
--- 479,485 ----
rsh machine -n 'command >/dev/null 2>&1 </dev/null &'
! Why? "-n" attaches rsh's stdin to /dev/null so you could run the
complete rsh command in the background on the LOCAL machine.
Thus "-n" is equivalent to another specific "< /dev/null".
Furthermore, the input/output redirections on the REMOTE machine
***************
*** 623,628 ****
--- 623,632 ----
has already been redirected so only stderr actually winds up in
stderr_file.
+ Sometimes it's easier to let sh do the work for you.
+
+ sh -c 'command >stdout_file 2>stderr_file'
+
17) How do I set the permissions on a symbolic link?
Permissions on a symbolic link don't really mean anything. The
***************
*** 650,655 ****
--- 654,662 ----
8 System maintenance and operation commands
+ Some Unix versions use non-numeric section names. For instance,
+ Xenix uses "C" for commands and "S" for functions.
+
Each section has an introduction, which you can read with "man # intro"
where # is the section number.
***************
*** 766,773 ****
Don Libes' book "Life with Unix" contains lots more of these
tidbits.
- 20) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
"vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists
--- 773,780 ----
Don Libes' book "Life with Unix" contains lots more of these
tidbits.
+ 20) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
"vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists
***************
*** 783,789 ****
pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past. This list
is maintained by Maarten Litmaath, maart@cs.vu.nl .
-
Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
with +, names derived from (Net)Hack are marked with & and names deserving
futher explanation are marked with a #. The explanations will be given at
--- 790,795 ----
***************
*** 799,805 ****
store#, potion&, not*+
" QUOTATION MARK, (double) quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears,
! double ping, double glitch, amulet&, web&
# CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
hash, fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe,
--- 805,811 ----
store#, potion&, not*+
" QUOTATION MARK, (double) quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears,
! double ping, double glitch, amulet&, web&, inverted commas
# CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
hash, fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe,
***************
*** 837,843 ****
put#, floor&
/ SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
! across#, compress#, spare, divided-by, wand&
: COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon&
--- 843,849 ----
put#, floor&
/ SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
! across#, compress#, spare, divided-by, wand&, forward slash
: COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon&
***************
*** 865,880 ****
mimic&
\ BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, (back)slant, backwhack, backslat,
! escape*, backslak, bak, reduce#, opulent throne&
^ CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, (top)hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop,
up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, power, to-the(-power), fang,
! sharkfin, and#, xor+, wok, trap&, pointer#, pipe*
_ UNDERSCORE, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm, blank,
! chain&, gets#
! ` GRAVE, (grave) accent, backquote, left/open quote, backprime,
unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, backtick, push, backglitch,
backping, execute#, boulder&, rock&
--- 871,886 ----
mimic&
\ BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, (back)slant, backwhack, backslat,
! escape*, backslak, bak, reduce#, opulent throne&, slosh
^ CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, (top)hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop,
up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, power, to-the(-power), fang,
! sharkfin, and#, xor+, wok, trap&, pointer#, pipe*, upper-than#
_ UNDERSCORE, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm, blank,
! chain&, gets#, dash#
! ` GRAVE, (grave/acute) accent, backquote, left/open quote, backprime,
unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, backtick, push, backglitch,
backping, execute#, boulder&, rock&
***************
*** 917,923 ****
computerized) publishing and typesetting industry in the U.S.
too, so ...
! store from FORTH
! # octothorpe from Bell System
# unequal e.g. Modula-2
$ string from BASIC
$ escape from TOPS-10
--- 923,929 ----
computerized) publishing and typesetting industry in the U.S.
too, so ...
! store from FORTH
! # octothorpe from Bell System (orig. octalthorpe)
# unequal e.g. Modula-2
$ string from BASIC
$ escape from TOPS-10
***************
*** 931,937 ****
*/ times-div from FORTH
= quadrathorpe half an octothorpe
- bithorpe half a quadrathorpe (So what's a monothorpe?)
! . put Victor Borge on Electric Company
/ across APL
/ compress APL
:= becomes e.g. Pascal
--- 937,944 ----
*/ times-div from FORTH
= quadrathorpe half an octothorpe
- bithorpe half a quadrathorpe (So what's a monothorpe?)
! . put Victor Borge's Phonetic Punctuation which dates back to the
! middle 1950's
/ across APL
/ compress APL
:= becomes e.g. Pascal
***************
*** 949,956 ****
--- 956,965 ----
\ reduce APL
^ and from formal logic
^ pointer from PASCAL
+ ^ upper-than cf. > and <
_ gets some alternative representation of underscore resembles a
backarrow
+ _ dash as distinct from '-' == minus
` execute from shell command substitution
{} Tuborgs from advertizing for well-known Danish beverage
{} curly chevr. see "< left chevron"
***************
*** 959,965 ****
| broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde
() nil LISP
-
--
Steve Hayman Workstation Manager Computer Science Department Indiana U.
--- 968,973 ----sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) (03/02/90)
Here are the most recent changes to parts 1 and 2 of the
Frequently Asked Questions articles, which have just been
posted. You can find the full articles elsewhere in
comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. You can also ftp
the most recent version from iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (129.79.254.192),
where it's "pub/Unix-Questions.part1" and "pub/Unix-Questions.part2".
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a02076 Fri Mar 2 00:53:33 1990
--- part2 Fri Mar 2 00:49:46 1990
***************
*** 38,44 ****
the number in parentheses mean?
19) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
stand for?
! 20) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 14, and want to skip
--- 38,46 ----
the number in parentheses mean?
19) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
stand for?
! 20) How does the gateway between "comp.unix.questions" and the
! "info-unix" mailing list work?
! 21) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 14, and want to skip
***************
*** 471,476 ****
--- 473,485 ----
rsh machine command &
or rsh machine 'command &'
+ For instance, try doing rsh machine 'sleep 60 &'
+ and you'll see that the 'rsh' won't exit right away.
+ It will wait 60 seconds until the remote 'sleep' command
+ finishes, even though that command was started in the
+ background on the remote machine. So how do you get
+ the 'rsh' to exit immediately after the 'sleep' is started?
+
The solution - if you use csh on the remote machine:
rsh machine -n 'command >&/dev/null </dev/null &'
***************
*** 666,672 ****
'time' command for timing programs, and also "time(3)", a manual
page about the 'time' subroutine for determining the current time.
You can use "man 1 time" or "man 3 time" to specify which "time"
! Man page you're interested in.
You'll often find other sections for local programs or
even subsections of the sections above - Ultrix has
--- 675,681 ----
'time' command for timing programs, and also "time(3)", a manual
page about the 'time' subroutine for determining the current time.
You can use "man 1 time" or "man 3 time" to specify which "time"
! man page you're interested in.
You'll often find other sections for local programs or
even subsections of the sections above - Ultrix has
***************
*** 774,780 ****
tidbits.
! 20) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
"vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists
--- 783,842 ----
tidbits.
! 20) How does the gateway between "comp.unix.questions" and the
! "info-unix" mailing list work?
!
! "Info-Unix" and "Unix-Wizards" are mailing list versions of
! comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards respectively.
! There should be no difference in content between the
! mailing list and the newsgroup.
!
! To get on or off either of these lists, send mail to
! Info-Unix-Request@brl.mil or Unix-Wizards-Request@brl.mil .
! Be sure to use the '-Request'. Don't expect an immediate response.
!
! Here are the gory details, courtesy of the list's maintainer, Bob Reschly.
!
! ==== postings to info-UNIX and UNIX-wizards lists ====
!
! Anything submitted to the list is posted; I do not moderate incoming
! traffic -- BRL functions as a reflector. Postings submitted by Internet
! subscribers should be addressed to the list address (info-UNIX or UNIX-
! wizards); the '-request' addresses are for correspondence with the list
! maintainer [me]. Postings submitted by USENET readers should be
! addressed to the appropriate news group (comp.unix.questions or
! comp.unix.wizards).
!
! For Internet subscribers, received traffic will be of two types;
! individual messages, and digests. Traffic which comes to BRL from the
! Internet and BITNET (via the BITNET-Internet gateway) is immediately
! resent to all addressees on the mailing list. Traffic originating on
! USENET is gathered up into digests which are sent to all list members
! daily.
!
! BITNET traffic is much like Internet traffic. The main difference is
! that I maintain only one address for traffic destined to all BITNET
! subscribers. That address points to a list exploder which then sends
! copies to individual BITNET subscribers. This way only one copy of a
! given message has to cross the BITNET-Internet gateway in either
! direction.
!
! USENET subscribers see only individual messages. All messages
! originating on the Internet side are forwarded to our USENET machine.
! They are then posted to the appropriate newsgroup. Unfortunately,
! for gatewayed messages, the sender becomes "news@brl-adm". This is
! currently an unavoidable side-effect of the software which performs the
! gateway function.
!
! As for readership, USENET has an extremely large readership - I would
! guess several thousand hosts and tens of thousands of readers. The
! master list maintained here at BRL runs about two hundred fifty entries
! with roughly ten percent of those being local redistribution lists.
! I don't have a good feel for the size of the BITNET redistribution, but
! I would guess it is roughly the same size and composition as the master
! list. Traffic runs 150K to 400K bytes per list per week on average.
!
! 21) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
"vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists
***************
*** 843,849 ****
put#, floor&
/ SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
! across#, compress#, spare, divided-by, wand&, forward slash
: COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon&
--- 905,912 ----
put#, floor&
/ SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
! across#, compress#, reduce#, replicate#, spare, divided-by, wand&,
! forward slash
: COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon&
***************
*** 871,877 ****
mimic&
\ BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, (back)slant, backwhack, backslat,
! escape*, backslak, bak, reduce#, opulent throne&, slosh
^ CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, (top)hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop,
up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, power, to-the(-power), fang,
--- 934,940 ----
mimic&
\ BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, (back)slant, backwhack, backslat,
! escape*, backslak, bak, scan#, expand#, opulent throne&, slosh, slope
^ CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, (top)hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop,
up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, power, to-the(-power), fang,
***************
*** 894,900 ****
bitor+, vert, v-bar, spike, to*, gazinta*, thru*, pipesinta*, tube,
mark, whack, gutter, wall&
! ~ TILDE, twiddle, tilda, tildee, wave, squiggle, swung dash, approx,
wiggle, enyay#, home*, worm, not+
--- 957,963 ----
bitor+, vert, v-bar, spike, to*, gazinta*, thru*, pipesinta*, tube,
mark, whack, gutter, wall&
! ~ TILDE, twiddle, tilda, tildee, wave, squiggle, swung dash, approx,
wiggle, enyay#, home*, worm, not+
***************
*** 941,946 ****
--- 1004,1011 ----
middle 1950's
/ across APL
/ compress APL
+ / reduce APL
+ / replicate APL
:= becomes e.g. Pascal
; go-on Algol68
< left chevron from the military: worn vertically on the sleeve to signify
***************
*** 953,959 ****
@ trunk-a "trunk" = "elephant nose"
@ strudel as in Austrian apple cake
@ fetch from FORTH
! \ reduce APL
^ and from formal logic
^ pointer from PASCAL
^ upper-than cf. > and <
--- 1018,1025 ----
@ trunk-a "trunk" = "elephant nose"
@ strudel as in Austrian apple cake
@ fetch from FORTH
! \ scan APL
! \ expand APL
^ and from formal logic
^ pointer from PASCAL
^ upper-than cf. > and <
***************
*** 966,974 ****
{} hitchcocks from the old Alfred Hitchcock show, with the stylized profile
of the man
| broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
! ~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde
() nil LISP
-
--
Steve Hayman Workstation Manager Computer Science Department Indiana U.
sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu iuvax!sahayman (812) 855-6984
--- 1032,1039 ----
{} hitchcocks from the old Alfred Hitchcock show, with the stylized profile
of the man
| broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
! ~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde
() nil LISP
--
Steve Hayman Workstation Manager Computer Science Department Indiana U.
sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu iuvax!sahayman (812) 855-6984sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) (06/02/90)
Here are the most recent changes to parts 1 and 2 of the
Frequently Asked Questions articles, which have just been
posted. You can find the full articles elsewhere in
comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. You can also ftp
the most recent version from iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (129.79.254.192),
where it's "pub/Unix-Questions.part1" and "pub/Unix-Questions.part2".
And now an apology. Normally the diffs would appear here but my
diff-making script messed up. The diffs will return next month.
Question 21 ("How do I undelete a file") is the only addition this month.sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) (07/03/90)
Here are the most recent changes to parts 1 and 2 of the
Frequently Asked Questions articles, which have just been
posted. You can find the full articles elsewhere in
comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. You can also ftp
the most recent version from iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (129.79.254.192),
where it's "pub/Unix-Questions.part1" and "pub/Unix-Questions.part2".
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a09210 Mon Jul 2 16:41:57 1990
--- part2 Mon Jul 2 16:39:06 1990
***************
*** 1,6 ****
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/06/01 14:28:10 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
--- 1,6 ----
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/07/02 16:38:51 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
***************
*** 41,47 ****
20) How does the gateway between "comp.unix.questions" and the
"info-unix" mailing list work?
21) How do I "undelete" a file?
! 22) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 14, and want to skip
--- 41,48 ----
20) How does the gateway between "comp.unix.questions" and the
"info-unix" mailing list work?
21) How do I "undelete" a file?
! 22) How can a process detect if it's running in the background?
! 23) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 14, and want to skip
***************
*** 94,105 ****
rm -ri .
! which asks you whether to remove each file in the directory,
! answer "y" to the problem file and "n" to everything else,
! and which, unfortunately, doesn't work with many versions of rm
! (always take a deep breath and think about what you're doing
! and double check what you typed when you use rm's "-r" flag);
and
find . -type f ... -ok rm '{}' \;
--- 95,111 ----
rm -ri .
! which asks you whether to remove each file in the directory.
! Answer "y" to the problem file and "n" to everything else.
! Unfortunately this doesn't work with many versions of rm.
! Also unfortunately, this will walk through every subdirectory
! of ".", so you might want to "chmod a-x" those directories
! temporarily to make them unsearchable.
+ Always take a deep breath and think about what you're doing
+ and double check what you typed when you use rm's "-r" flag
+ or a wildcard on the command line;
+
and
find . -type f ... -ok rm '{}' \;
***************
*** 187,192 ****
--- 193,199 ----
LOGIN_SHELL=$$ export LOGIN_SHELL
CMDFILE=/tmp/cd.$$ export CMDFILE
+ # 16 is SIGURG, pick some signal that isn't likely to be used
PROMPTSIG=16 export PROMPTSIG
trap '. $CMDFILE' $PROMPTSIG
***************
*** 212,218 ****
--- 219,237 ----
If you just want the last component of the directory, use
PS1='${PWD##*/} $ '
+ T C shell (tcsh)
+
+ Tcsh is a popular enhanced version of csh with some extra
+ builtin variables (and many other features):
+
+ %~ the current directory, using ~ for $HOME
+ %d or %/ the full pathname of the current directory
+ %c or %. the trailing component of the current directory
+
+ so you can do
+ set prompt='%~ '
+
5) How do I read characters from a terminal without requiring the user
to hit RETURN?
***************
*** 223,228 ****
--- 242,248 ----
program do the work - but this is slow and inefficient, and you
should change the code to do it right some time:
+ #include <stdio.h>
main()
{
int c;
***************
*** 232,238 ****
* ioctl() would be better here; only lazy
* programmers do it this way:
*/
! system("/bin/stty cbreak");
c = getchar();
system("/bin/stty -cbreak");
printf("Thank you for typing %c.\n", c);
--- 252,258 ----
* ioctl() would be better here; only lazy
* programmers do it this way:
*/
! system("/bin/stty cbreak"); /* or "stty raw" */
c = getchar();
system("/bin/stty -cbreak");
printf("Thank you for typing %c.\n", c);
***************
*** 272,278 ****
the terminal, you can try something like
echo -n "Enter a character: "
! stty cbreak
readchar=`dd if=/dev/tty bs=1 count=1 2>/dev/null`
stty -cbreak
--- 292,298 ----
the terminal, you can try something like
echo -n "Enter a character: "
! stty cbreak # or stty raw
readchar=`dd if=/dev/tty bs=1 count=1 2>/dev/null`
stty -cbreak
***************
*** 292,300 ****
whether a read() call on a given file descriptor will block.
There is no way to check whether characters are available to be
! read from a FILE pointer. (Well, there is no *good* way. You could
! poke around inside stdio data structures to see if the input buffer
! is nonempty but this is a bad idea, forget about it.)
Sometimes people ask this question with the intention of writing
if (characters available from fd)
--- 312,321 ----
whether a read() call on a given file descriptor will block.
There is no way to check whether characters are available to be
! read from a FILE pointer. (You could poke around inside stdio data
! structures to see if the input buffer is nonempty, but that wouldn't
! work since you'd have no way of knowing what will happen the next
! time you try to fill the buffer.)
Sometimes people ask this question with the intention of writing
if (characters available from fd)
***************
*** 369,376 ****
If you don't have "basename" or want to do something like
renaming foo.* to bar.*, you can use something like "sed" to
strip apart the original file name in other ways, but
! the general looping idea is the same.
A program called "ren" that does this job nicely was posted
to comp.sources.unix some time ago. It lets you use
--- 390,401 ----
If you don't have "basename" or want to do something like
renaming foo.* to bar.*, you can use something like "sed" to
strip apart the original file name in other ways, but
! the general looping idea is the same. You can also convert
! file names into "mv" commands with 'sed', and hand the commands
! off to "sh" for execution. Try
+ ls -d *.foo | sed -e 's/.*/mv & &/' -e 's/foo$/bar/' | sh
+
A program called "ren" that does this job nicely was posted
to comp.sources.unix some time ago. It lets you use
***************
*** 496,503 ****
(inside the single quotes) ensure that rsh thinks the session can
be terminated (there's no data flow any more.)
! Note: on the remote machine, you needn't redirect to/from
! /dev/null; any ordinary file will do.
In many cases, various parts of these complicated commands
aren't necessary.
--- 521,528 ----
(inside the single quotes) ensure that rsh thinks the session can
be terminated (there's no data flow any more.)
! Note: The file that you redirect to/from on the remote machine
! doesn't have to be /dev/null; any ordinary file will do.
In many cases, various parts of these complicated commands
aren't necessary.
***************
*** 579,585 ****
command {}/*
...
! once for each directory. This might be a bug, it might be a feature
but we're stuck with the current behaviour.
So how do you get around this? One way would be to write a
--- 604,610 ----
command {}/*
...
! once for each directory. This might be a bug, it might be a feature,
but we're stuck with the current behaviour.
So how do you get around this? One way would be to write a
***************
*** 599,605 ****
--- 624,635 ----
(This works because within the 'command' of "sh -c 'command' A B C ...",
$0 expands to A, $1 to B, and so on.)
+ or you can use the construct-a-command-with-sed trick
+
+ find /path -type d -print | sed 's:.*:command &/*:' | sh
+
+
If all you're trying to do is cut down on the number of times
that "command" is executed, you should see if your system
has the "xargs" command. Xargs reads arguments one line at a time
***************
*** 652,658 ****
"man 3 ctime" to look up the manual page for "ctime" in section 3
of the manual.
! The standard manual sections are:
1 User-level commands
2 System calls
--- 682,688 ----
"man 3 ctime" to look up the manual page for "ctime" in section 3
of the manual.
! The traditional manual sections are:
1 User-level commands
2 System calls
***************
*** 700,715 ****
where "re" is a "regular expression".
! fgrep = "Fixed Grep".
fgrep searches for fixed strings only. The "f" does not
stand for "fast" - in fact, "fgrep foobar *.c" is usually slower
! than "egrep foobar *.c" (yes, this is kind of surprising. Try it.)
Fgrep still has its uses though, and may be useful when searching
a file for a larger number of strings than egrep can handle.
! egrep = "Extended Grep"
egrep uses fancier regular expressions than grep.
Many people use egrep all the time, since it has some more
--- 730,745 ----
where "re" is a "regular expression".
! fgrep = "Fixed GREP".
fgrep searches for fixed strings only. The "f" does not
stand for "fast" - in fact, "fgrep foobar *.c" is usually slower
! than "egrep foobar *.c" (Yes, this is kind of surprising. Try it.)
Fgrep still has its uses though, and may be useful when searching
a file for a larger number of strings than egrep can handle.
! egrep = "Extended GREP"
egrep uses fancier regular expressions than grep.
Many people use egrep all the time, since it has some more
***************
*** 716,722 ****
sophisticated internal algorithms than grep or fgrep,
and is usually the fastest of the three programs.
! cat = "catenate"
catenate is an obscure word meaning "to connect in a series",
which is what the "cat" command does to one or more files.
--- 746,752 ----
sophisticated internal algorithms than grep or fgrep,
and is usually the fastest of the three programs.
! cat = "CATenate"
catenate is an obscure word meaning "to connect in a series",
which is what the "cat" command does to one or more files.
***************
*** 740,746 ****
troff = "Typesetter ROFF"
These are descendants of "roff", which was a re-implementation
! of the Multics "runoff" program.
tee = T
--- 770,777 ----
troff = "Typesetter ROFF"
These are descendants of "roff", which was a re-implementation
! of the Multics "runoff" program (a program that you'd use to
! "run off" a good copy of a document).
tee = T
***************
*** 843,848 ****
--- 874,883 ----
and find you just deleted "*" instead of "*.foo". Consider it a rite
of passage.
+ Of course, any decent systems administrator should be doing regular
+ backups. Check with your sysadmin to see if a recent backup copy
+ of your file is available. But if it isn't, read on.
+
For all intents and purposes, when you delete a file with "rm" it is
gone. Once you "rm" a file, the system totally forgets which blocks
scattered around the disk comprised your file. Even worse, the blocks
***************
*** 888,894 ****
complete replacement for rm which allows file recovery. This
package was posted to comp.sources.unix (volume 18, issue 73).
! 22) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
"vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists
--- 923,950 ----
complete replacement for rm which allows file recovery. This
package was posted to comp.sources.unix (volume 18, issue 73).
!
! 22) How can a process detect if it's running in the background?
!
! In general, you can't. The fundamental problem is that different
! shells and different versions of UNIX have different notions of
! what "foreground" and "background" mean - and on the most common
! type of system with a better-defined notion of what they mean,
! programs can be moved arbitrarily between foreground and background!
!
! UNIX systems without job control typically put a process into the
! background by ignoring SIGINT and SIGQUIT and redirecting the standard
! input to "/dev/null"; this is done by the shell.
!
! Shells that support job control, on UNIX systems that support job
! control, put a process into the background by giving it a process group
! ID different from the process group to which the terminal belongs. They
! move it back into the foreground by setting the terminal's process group
! ID to that of the process. Shells that do *not* support job control, on
! UNIX systems that support job control, typically do what shells do on
! systems that don't support job control.
!
! 23) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
"vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists
***************
*** 904,909 ****
--- 960,969 ----
pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past. This list
is maintained by Maarten Litmaath, maart@cs.vu.nl .
+ The Pronunciation Guide
+ -----------------------
+ version 2.1
+
Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
with +, names derived from (Net)Hack are marked with & and names deserving
futher explanation are marked with a #. The explanations will be given at
***************
*** 922,938 ****
double ping, double glitch, amulet&, web&, inverted commas
# CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
! hash, fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe,
! scratch (mark), (garden)gate, hak, oof, rake, sink&, corridor&,
! unequal#
$ DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#,
! ding, big-money, gold&
% PERCENT SIGN, percent, mod+, shift-5, double-oh-seven, grapes, food&
& AMPERSAND, and, amper, address+, shift-7, andpersand, snowman,
! bitand+, donald duck#, daemon&, background*
' APOSTROPHE, (single) quote, tick, prime, irk, pop, spark, glitch,
lurker above&
--- 982,998 ----
double ping, double glitch, amulet&, web&, inverted commas
# CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
! hash, (garden) fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen,
! tictactoe, scratch (mark), (garden) gate, hak, oof, rake, sink&,
! corridor&, unequal#
$ DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#,
! ding, big-money, gold&, Sonne#
% PERCENT SIGN, percent, mod+, shift-5, double-oh-seven, grapes, food&
& AMPERSAND, and, amper, address+, shift-7, andpersand, snowman,
! bitand+, donald duck#, daemon&, background*, pretzel
' APOSTROPHE, (single) quote, tick, prime, irk, pop, spark, glitch,
lurker above&
***************
*** 958,964 ****
/ SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
across#, compress#, reduce#, replicate#, spare, divided-by, wand&,
! forward slash
: COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon&
--- 1018,1024 ----
/ SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
across#, compress#, reduce#, replicate#, spare, divided-by, wand&,
! forward slash, shilling#
: COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon&
***************
*** 1040,1045 ****
--- 1100,1111 ----
loud noise; however, this pronunciation is used in the (non-
computerized) publishing and typesetting industry in the U.S.
too, so ...
+ Alternatively it could have come from comic books, where the
+ words each character utters are shown in a "balloon" near that
+ character's head. When one character shoots another, it is
+ common to see a balloon pointing at the barrel of the gun to
+ denote that the gun had been fired, not merely aimed.
+ That balloon contained the word "!" -- hence, "!" == "Bang!"
! store from FORTH
! dammit as in "quit, dammit!" while exiting vi and hoping one hasn't
clobbered a file too badly
***************
*** 1047,1052 ****
--- 1113,1131 ----
# unequal e.g. Modula-2
$ string from BASIC
$ escape from TOPS-10
+ $ Sonne In the "socialist" countries they used and are using all kinds
+ of IBM clones (hardware + sw). It was a common practice just
+ to rename everything (IBM 360 --> ESER 1040 etc.).
+ Of course the "dollar" sign had to be renamed - it became the
+ "international currency symbol" which looks like a circle with
+ 4 rays spreading from it:
+
+ \ /
+ O
+ / \
+
+ Because it looks like a (small) shining sun it was usually
+ called "Sonne" (sun).
& donald duck from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck"
* splat from DEC "spider" glyph
* Nathan Hale "I have but one asterisk for my country."
***************
*** 1063,1068 ****
--- 1142,1148 ----
/ compress APL
/ reduce APL
/ replicate APL
+ / shilling from the British currency symbol
:= becomes e.g. Pascal
; go-on Algol68
< left chevron from the military: worn vertically on the sleeve to signifysahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) (08/02/90)
Here are the most recent changes to parts 1 and 2 of the
Frequently Asked Questions articles, which have just been
posted. You can find the full articles elsewhere in
comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. You can also ftp
the most recent version from iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (129.79.254.192),
where it's "pub/Unix-Questions.part1" and "pub/Unix-Questions.part2".
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a24956 Wed Aug 1 23:45:35 1990
--- part1 Wed Aug 1 23:44:05 1990
***************
*** 1,6 ****
Subject: Welcome to comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/03/02 00:49:37 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
Comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards are two of the most popular
and highest volume newsgroups on Usenet. This article is a monthly
--- 1,6 ----
Subject: Welcome to comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/08/01 23:43:59 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
Comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards are two of the most popular
and highest volume newsgroups on Usenet. This article is a monthly
***************
*** 83,88 ****
--- 83,91 ----
comp.unix.questions or comp.unix.wizards. These include:
comp.lang.c General discussion of the C language
+ (comp.lang.c has its own "Frequently Asked Questions"
+ list - be sure to check it out before posting a
+ question to that group.)
comp.std.c Discussion of the ANSI/ISO C standard
comp.std.unix Discussion of Unix standards and particularly
the IEEE 1003 POSIX standard.
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a24981 Wed Aug 1 23:45:38 1990
--- part2 Wed Aug 1 23:44:11 1990
***************
*** 1,6 ****
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/07/02 16:38:51 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
--- 1,6 ----
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/08/01 23:44:07 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
***************
*** 42,48 ****
"info-unix" mailing list work?
21) How do I "undelete" a file?
22) How can a process detect if it's running in the background?
! 23) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 14, and want to skip
--- 42,49 ----
"info-unix" mailing list work?
21) How do I "undelete" a file?
22) How can a process detect if it's running in the background?
! 23) How can an executing program determine its own pathname?
! 24) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 14, and want to skip
***************
*** 485,492 ****
time (shown by "ls -l"), a last-accessed time (shown by "ls -lu")
and an inode change time (shown by "ls -lc"). The latter is often
referred to as the "creation time" - even in some man pages - but
! that's wrong; it's the time the file's status was last changed,
! either by writing or changing the inode (via mv or chmod, etc...).
The man page for "stat(2)" discusses this.
--- 486,493 ----
time (shown by "ls -l"), a last-accessed time (shown by "ls -lu")
and an inode change time (shown by "ls -lc"). The latter is often
referred to as the "creation time" - even in some man pages - but
! that's wrong; it's also set by such operations as mv, ln,
! chmod, chown and chgrp.
The man page for "stat(2)" discusses this.
***************
*** 638,644 ****
find /path -print | xargs command
! which would result in
command file1 file2 file3 file4 dir1/file1 dir1/file2
--- 639,645 ----
find /path -print | xargs command
! which would result in one or more executions of
command file1 file2 file3 file4 dir1/file1 dir1/file2
***************
*** 767,773 ****
for the $IDENT card. Not elegant."
nroff = "New ROFF"
! troff = "Typesetter ROFF"
These are descendants of "roff", which was a re-implementation
of the Multics "runoff" program (a program that you'd use to
--- 768,774 ----
for the $IDENT card. Not elegant."
nroff = "New ROFF"
! troff = "Typesetter new ROFF"
These are descendants of "roff", which was a re-implementation
of the Multics "runoff" program (a program that you'd use to
***************
*** 796,802 ****
be punched literally into the object deck but was represented
by a count somewhere.
! biff = "biff"
This command, which turns on asynchronous mail notification,
was actually named after a dog at Berkeley.
--- 797,803 ----
be punched literally into the object deck but was represented
by a count somewhere.
! biff = "BIFF"
This command, which turns on asynchronous mail notification,
was actually named after a dog at Berkeley.
***************
*** 926,937 ****
22) How can a process detect if it's running in the background?
! In general, you can't. The fundamental problem is that different
! shells and different versions of UNIX have different notions of
! what "foreground" and "background" mean - and on the most common
! type of system with a better-defined notion of what they mean,
! programs can be moved arbitrarily between foreground and background!
UNIX systems without job control typically put a process into the
background by ignoring SIGINT and SIGQUIT and redirecting the standard
input to "/dev/null"; this is done by the shell.
--- 927,947 ----
22) How can a process detect if it's running in the background?
! First of all: do you want to know if you're running in the background,
! or if you're running interactively? If you're deciding whether or
! not you should print prompts and the like, that's probably a better
! criterion. Check if standard input is a terminal:
+ sh: if [ -t 0 ]; then ... fi
+ C: if(isatty(0)) { ... }
+
+ In general, you can't tell if you're running in the background.
+ The fundamental problem is that different shells and different
+ versions of UNIX have different notions of what "foreground" and
+ "background" mean - and on the most common type of system with a
+ better-defined notion of what they mean, programs can be moved
+ arbitrarily between foreground and background!
+
UNIX systems without job control typically put a process into the
background by ignoring SIGINT and SIGQUIT and redirecting the standard
input to "/dev/null"; this is done by the shell.
***************
*** 944,950 ****
UNIX systems that support job control, typically do what shells do on
systems that don't support job control.
! 23) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
"vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists
--- 954,990 ----
UNIX systems that support job control, typically do what shells do on
systems that don't support job control.
! 23) How can an executing program determine its own pathname?
!
! Your program can look at argv[0]; if it begins with a "/",
! it is probably the absolute pathname to your program, otherwise
! your program can look at every directory named in the environment
! variable PATH and try to find the first one that contains an
! executable file whose name matches your program's argv[0]
! (which by convention is the name of the file being executed).
! By concatenating that directory and the value of argv[0] you'd
! probably have the right name.
!
! You can't really be sure though, since it is quite legal for one
! program to exec() another with any value of argv[0] it desires.
! It is merely a convention that new programs are exec'd with the
! executable file name in argv[0].
!
! For instance, purely a hypothetical example:
!
! #include <stdio.h>
! main()
! {
! execl("/usr/games/rogue", "vi Thesis", (char *)NULL);
! }
!
! The executed program thinks its name (its argv[0] value) is
! "vi Thesis". (Certain other programs might also think that
! the name of the program you're currently running is "vi Thesis",
! but of course this is just a hypothetical example, don't
! try it yourself :-)
!
! 24) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?
You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say
"vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists
***************
*** 960,968 ****
pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past. This list
is maintained by Maarten Litmaath, maart@cs.vu.nl .
The Pronunciation Guide
-----------------------
! version 2.1
Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
with +, names derived from (Net)Hack are marked with & and names deserving
--- 1000,1009 ----
pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past. This list
is maintained by Maarten Litmaath, maart@cs.vu.nl .
+
The Pronunciation Guide
-----------------------
! version 2.2
Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
with +, names derived from (Net)Hack are marked with & and names deserving
***************
*** 984,990 ****
# CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
hash, (garden) fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen,
tictactoe, scratch (mark), (garden) gate, hak, oof, rake, sink&,
! corridor&, unequal#
$ DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#,
ding, big-money, gold&, Sonne#
--- 1025,1031 ----
# CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
hash, (garden) fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen,
tictactoe, scratch (mark), (garden) gate, hak, oof, rake, sink&,
! corridor&, unequal#, punch mark
$ DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#,
ding, big-money, gold&, Sonne#
***************
*** 1119,1131 ****
Of course the "dollar" sign had to be renamed - it became the
"international currency symbol" which looks like a circle with
4 rays spreading from it:
! \ /
! O
! / \
!
! Because it looks like a (small) shining sun it was usually
! called "Sonne" (sun).
& donald duck from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck"
* splat from DEC "spider" glyph
* Nathan Hale "I have but one asterisk for my country."
--- 1160,1173 ----
Of course the "dollar" sign had to be renamed - it became the
"international currency symbol" which looks like a circle with
4 rays spreading from it:
+ ____
+ \/ \/
+ / \
+ \ /
+ /\____/\
! Because it looks like a (small) shining sun, in the German
! Democratic Republic it was usually called "Sonne" (sun).
& donald duck from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck"
* splat from DEC "spider" glyph
* Nathan Hale "I have but one asterisk for my country."
***************
*** 1172,1177 ****
| broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde
() nil LISP
--
Steve Hayman Workstation Manager Computer Science Department Indiana U.
! sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu iuvax!sahayman (812) 855-6984
--- 1214,1221 ----
| broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde
() nil LISP
+
--
Steve Hayman Workstation Manager Computer Science Department Indiana U.
! sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (812) 855-6984
! NeXT Mail: sahayman@spurge.bloomington.in.ussahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) (09/06/90)
Here are the most recent changes to parts 1 and 2 of the
Frequently Asked Questions articles, which have just been
posted. You can find the full articles elsewhere in
comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. You can also ftp
the most recent version from iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (129.79.254.192),
where it's "pub/Unix-Questions.part1" and "pub/Unix-Questions.part2".
[[Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in getting these out. I haven't
had time to make any significant changes to these postings this month.
A lot of part 1 needs to be updated to reflect the new comp.unix.*
subgroups - I'll get that into next month's version ...sah ]]
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a03691 Wed Sep 5 22:12:40 1990
--- part1 Wed Sep 5 22:12:08 1990
***************
*** 1,6 ****
Subject: Welcome to comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/08/01 23:43:59 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
Comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards are two of the most popular
and highest volume newsgroups on Usenet. This article is a monthly
--- 1,12 ----
Subject: Welcome to comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/09/05 22:12:04 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
!
! NOTE - much of this information needs to be changed since a number
! of new comp.unix subgroups have been created. I haven't had time to
! make the necessary updates yet. Take much of this posting with a
! grain of salt at the moment.
! ... steve hayman, sept. 5 1990
Comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards are two of the most popular
and highest volume newsgroups on Usenet. This article is a monthly
*** /tmp/,RCSt1a03704 Wed Sep 5 22:12:44 1990
--- part2 Wed Sep 5 22:12:16 1990
***************
*** 1,6 ****
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/08/01 23:44:07 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
--- 1,6 ----
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]
! [Last changed: $Date: 90/09/05 22:12:09 $ by $Author: sahayman $]
This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards. Please don't
***************
*** 997,1004 ****
dialects and accents.
Since this topic keeps coming up on the net, here is a comprehensive
! pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past. This list
! is maintained by Maarten Litmaath, maart@cs.vu.nl .
The Pronunciation Guide
--- 997,1005 ----
dialects and accents.
Since this topic keeps coming up on the net, here is a comprehensive
! pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past. Send updates
! to Steve Hayman, sahayman@cs.indiana.edu. Special thanks to
! Maarten Litmaath for his work in maintaining this list in the past.
The Pronunciation Guide