From: posterkid <posterkid@psnw.com>
Newsgroups: alt.humor.best-of-usenet
Subject: [comp.unix.shell] unix acronyms -collecting a list?
Date: 5 Aug 1997 11:43:01 -0700

Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list? 
From: d@idiom.com (D)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell, comp.os.linux.misc, comp.os.linux.x, alt.os.linux, 
 comp.unix.bsd.misc, comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc, gnu.misc.discuss, 
 comp.unix.solaris

token@altair.franken.de (Matthias Buelow) writes:

> >characters. But it can also be inconvenient at times when you don't
> >know them all especially when no information about the abbreviation within 
> >the manpages, the infopages or whatever is available.

4.4BSD, the OS of the future, contains a Permuted Index that does what
I think you want an authentic (Sun, Linux, GNU, IBM, etc., do not issue
unix OS's, and the closest they've ever come is stealing code from 4.4BSD,
which was designed from scratch by the government to be a well written
general purpose OS) unix to do.

> If you just want to know if programs exist for certain keywords or
> if you have forgotten a command, you can use man -k.
> 
> >1) not every unix-willing person in the world knows each and every
> >   abbreviation
> 
> What do you exactly define as "abbreviations"?
> If you just want to get a hint about how the commands in /usr/bin
> got their name, a "whatis /usr/bin/*" often does the trick.
> 
> For example whatis dd gives "convert and copy a file".  There you
> got it where "dd" comes from, don't you?

`cc` is copy and convert a file.  `dd` is dump data, or something
similar.

If it bugs you, just change the names via `mv`:

mv -i /bin/cc /bin/C\ Compiler
mv -i /bin/dd /bin/Dump\ Data\ and\ try\ not\ to\ fuck\ it\ up
mv -i /bin/cat /bin/conCATenate\ and\ print\ files\ as\ long\ you\ don\'t\ have\ randal\ schwartz\ looking\ over\ your\ shoulder