mp (02/21/83)
Well, now that we've beaten set-uid and rm to their annual deaths, I guess it's time to debate the origins of "dsw". To answer this question before a lot of opinions spring up, here's dmr's reply: >From research!dmr Wed Aug 12 00:35:06 1981 Subject: etymology &c Newsgroups: NET.general I would advise taking uiucdcs!jerry's account of history and motivations with a healthy dose of salt. However, his heart's in the right place (unlike some). A while ago someone asked Ken Thompson what he would do differently if he were to do Unix again. The answer: "I would have called it create instead of creat." Well, my answer is that I would have fixed the stupid dsw manual page. Fortunately, I can atone by publishing a correct account (not the real 1970 manual page, but an incredible simulation). >From research!dmr Wed Aug 12 00:02:17 1981 Subject: dsw manual page (honest) Newsgroups: NET.general DSW(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual DSW(1) NAME dsw - delete from switches SYNOPSIS (put number in console switches) dsw core DESCRIPTION _d_s_w reads the console switches to obtain a number _n, prints the name of the _n-th file in the current directory, and exits, leaving a core image file named _c_o_r_e. If this core file is executed, the file whose name was last printed is unlinked (see _u_n_l_i_n_k(2)). The command is useful for deleting files whose names are difficult to type. SEE ALSO rm(1), unlink(2) BUGS This command was written in 2 minutes to delete a particular file that managed to get an 0200 bit in its name. It should work by printing the name of each file in a specified direc- tory and requesting a `y' or `n' answer. Better, it should be an option of _r_m(1). The name is mnemonic, but likely to cause trouble in the future. Printed 8/11/81 PDP-7 local 1