On Sat, 1 May 2010 22:52:54 +0200 Harrell <elbibliotecarioci...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi list, > > Not no off-topic, but a little unix history oriented question. > > In hier(7) OpenBSD describe /usr as "Contains the majority of user > utilities and applications". > > In > http://www.usna.edu/Users/cs/delooze/teaching/IC221/Lectures/LN02/class02.html > they > say that /usr "Stands for Unix System Resources. Contains system > utilities". > > In wikipedia they say /usr is "*Secondary hierarchy* for read-only > user data; contains the majority of > (multi-<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-user>)user > utilities and applications" > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard > > So my doubt is: Is "usr" an abbreviation of "user"? If that is so (as > as hier(7) can be understood), why /usr contains mainly "system > resources" and not "user resources"? In fact only root has w > permission inside /usr, so it seems more a system directory. I know > that a system directory contains resources for the user, but, just > for curiosity, what is the origin of this directory name? A user > place o a unix system place? > > Thanks. > > Harrell In many situations knowing where a name comes from is really helpful, but in other situations, knowing where a name came from is completely misleading since over time, definitions change. The name of the "/usr" directory is the latter. At one point in time in the ancient past, the /usr directory is where user directories were once stored, but over time the usage of this directory changed. The claim of 'usr' being an abbreviation for Unix System Resources is a "backronym," (i.e. an abbreviation created after the fact). jcr -- The OpenBSD Journal - http://www.undeadly.org
