GNU bug report logs - #10013
[ls] document origin of name

Previous Next

Full log

View this message in rfc822 format

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
Cc: 10013 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ian Bruntlett <ianbruntlett <at> hotmail.com>
Subject: bug#10013: man ls
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:10:27 -0800

On 11/10/11 13:33, Eric Blake wrote:
> +The @command{ls} program stands for ``list sorted''.

I'm somewhat dubious.

I never worked at Bell Labs (I was just a visitor once or twice),
but I have worked with several people who did work in Bell Labs's
software research group during the Unix days, and I think I would
have heard about "list sorted" if that was really the reason for "ls".
I suspect that the AT&Ter in question was from USG, not from the
original Unix team, and that this etymology is not entirely reliable.

Quite plausibly, "ls" means "list" for the same reason that
"cp" means "copy" and "mv" means "move".

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.