Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 SMI; site sun.uucp Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!decwrl!sun!guy From: guy@sun.uucp (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: History lessons Message-ID: <2421@sun.uucp> Date: Tue, 16-Jul-85 04:35:15 EDT Article-I.D.: sun.2421 Posted: Tue Jul 16 04:35:15 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jul-85 05:58:36 EDT References: <6727@Shasta.ARPA> <2071@ucf-cs.UUCP> <2414@sun.uucp> <1014@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Lines: 40 > Some misinformation about the history of Unix has been floating around > the net. In the interests of truth, justice, and the Unix way, I'm going > to post what I believe to be correct information. > > >P.S. 4.xBSD is the only UNIX that documents "-inum" but I think it's been > >in there since V7 and is thus in S3 and S5 as well. > > Contrary to popular believe, S3 and S5 are *not* descended from v7. They > spun off the research Unix line somewhere between v6 and v7, and some of > the things in v7 were added after that happened. I'm *quite* aware of that, thank you. However, the point of spin-off was *FAR* closer to V7 than to V6 (UNIX/TS 1.0 had the V7 file system, the new V7 system calls, and the Bourne shell). The chances are *extremely* good that if something was in V7 it was in S3 as well. > The most glaring example (to me, anyway) is the dbm library. Which may have come out after UNIX/TS 1.0 was done, or may have come out before but wasn't picked up by the people doing UNIX/TS. Could anybody with real knowledge say which was the case? > I don't know (and can't check) if the S3/5 find have -inum. It has it; I looked. > As late as v6, ln command allowed root to link directories, and across file > systems. This may have been a Purdue hack, though. It certainly was. "ln" *across file systems*? V6 sure as hell didn't support that (remember, the V6 directory format and the V7 directory format are the same; there's room in a link for an inumber but not for a file system). > "4.2 isn't to big. v7 was to big; 4.2 is efing HUGE." V6 was too small (no supported "long" or "short" data types, a weak shell, no Standard I/O library, no "make", no environment, etc., etc.). Guy Harris