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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!metro!metro!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.erols.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!News1.Ottawa.iSTAR.net!news.istar.net!n1ott.istar!n2ott.istar!tor.istar!east.istar!news From: david@mudshark.micro.ti.com (David A Thomas) Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list? Followup-To: comp.unix.shell,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc Date: 8 Jun 1997 05:19:18 GMT Organization: Texas Instruments, Houston Lines: 18 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <5ndfcm$7of@nr1.toronto.istar.net> References: <5kd2ng$c8b$1@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de> <338B012B.4C3B@att.com> Reply-To: david NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.29.76.3 X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.shell:45824 comp.os.linux.misc:179388 comp.unix.bsd.misc:3527 Allen Kirby (akirby@att.com) wrote: > [...many attributions lost...] > > > > > dd = Data Dump (At least I always thought so) > > > > Device Dump > > > Sure about that one? The functionality of > > > dd if=/tmp/myfile conv=ascii of=/tmp/newfile > > > wouldn't make sense if the command were truly a device > > > level operator. > Ken Thompson confirmed that the origin of 'dd' was a joke on the IBM > 'dd' mainframe command, which I believe stood for 'define data'. The 'dd' command is indeed an *imitation* of many of the conversions provided by the DATA DEFINITION (DD) statement in System 360-370 JCL. It's no joke. -- David Thomas (david-at-micro-dot-ti-dot-com) Texas Instruments, Houston (281)-274-2347