Diffs to the Frequently Asked Questions postings

Thu Jan 4 07:30:57 AEST 1990

Here are the most recent changes to parts 1 and 2 of the
Frequently Asked Questions articles, which have just been
posted.  You can find the full articles elsewhere in
comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards.

*** /tmp/,RCSt1a13729	Wed Jan  3 15:27:42 1990
--- part2	Wed Jan  3 15:27:30 1990
***************
*** 1,6 ****
  Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]

! [Last changed: $Date: 89/12/01 14:50:10 $ by $Author: sahayman $]

  This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
  often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards.  Please don't
--- 1,6 ----
  Subject: Frequently Asked Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]

! [Last changed: $Date: 90/01/03 15:27:26 $ by $Author: sahayman $]

  This article contains the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions
  often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.wizards.  Please don't
***************
*** 11,42 ****
  This article includes answers to:

! 	How do I remove a file whose name begins with a "-" ?
! 	How do I remove a file with funny characters in the filename ?
! 	How do I get a recursive directory listing?
! 	How do I get the current directory into my prompt?
! 	How do I read characters from a terminal without requiring the user
! 	    to hit RETURN?
! 	How do I read characters from the terminal in a shell script?
! 	How do I check to see if there are characters to be read without
! 	    actually reading?
! 	How do I find the name of an open file?
! 	How do I rename "*.foo" to "*.bar", or change file names to lowercase?
! 	Why do I get [some strange error message] when I "rsh host command" ?
! 	How do I find out the creation time of a file?
! 	How do I use "rsh" without having the rsh hang around
! 	    until the remote command has completed?
! 	How do I truncate a file?
! 	How do I {set an environment variable, change directory} inside a
! 	    shell script and have that change affect my current shell?
! 	Why doesn't find's "{}" symbol do what I want?
! 	How do I redirect stdout and stderr separately in csh?
! 	How do I set the permissions on a symbolic link?
! 	What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
! 	    stand for?
! 	How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?

  While these are all legitimate questions, they seem to crop up in
  comp.unix.questions on an annual basis, usually followed by plenty
--- 11,48 ----
  This article includes answers to:

! 	1)  How do I remove a file whose name begins with a "-" ?
! 	2)  How do I remove a file with funny characters in the filename ?
! 	3)  How do I get a recursive directory listing?
! 	4)  How do I get the current directory into my prompt?
! 	5)  How do I read characters from a terminal without requiring the user
! 	      to hit RETURN?
! 	6)  How do I read characters from the terminal in a shell script?
! 	7)  How do I check to see if there are characters to be read without
! 	      actually reading?
! 	8)  How do I find the name of an open file?
! 	9)  How do I rename "*.foo" to "*.bar", or change file names
! 	      to lowercase?
! 	10) Why do I get [some strange error message] when I
! 	      "rsh host command" ?
! 	11) How do I find out the creation time of a file?
! 	12) How do I use "rsh" without having the rsh hang around
! 	      until the remote command has completed?
! 	13) How do I truncate a file?
! 	14) How do I {set an environment variable, change directory} inside a
! 	      shell script and have that change affect my current shell?
! 	15) Why doesn't find's "{}" symbol do what I want?
! 	16) How do I redirect stdout and stderr separately in csh?
! 	17) How do I set the permissions on a symbolic link?
! 	18) When someone refers to 'rn(1)' or 'ctime(3)', what does
! 	      the number in parentheses mean?
! 	19) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
! 	      stand for?
! 	20) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?

+     If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 14, and want to skip
+     everything else, you can search ahead for the regular expression "^14)".  

  While these are all legitimate questions, they seem to crop up in
  comp.unix.questions on an annual basis, usually followed by plenty
***************
*** 231,237 ****
--- 237,250 ----
  	    exit(0);
      }

+     You might like to check out the documentation for the "curses"
+     library of portable screen functions.  Often if you're interested
+     in single-character I/O like this, you're also interested in doing
+     some sort of screen display control, and the curses library
+     provides various portable routines for both functions.

+ 
+ 
  6)  How do I read characters from the terminal in a shell script?

      In sh, use read.  It is most common to use a loop like
***************
*** 366,376 ****

  	C Shell:
  	    foreach f ( * )
! 		mv $f `echo $f | tr A-Z a-z`
  	    end
  	Bourne Shell:
  	    for f in *; do
! 		mv $f `echo $f | tr A-Z a-z`
  	    done

      If you wanted to be really thorough and handle files with
--- 379,389 ----

  	C Shell:
  	    foreach f ( * )
! 		mv $f `echo $f | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
  	    end
  	Bourne Shell:
  	    for f in *; do
! 		mv $f `echo $f | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
  	    done

      If you wanted to be really thorough and handle files with
***************
*** 379,387 ****
  	Bourne Shell:

  	    for f in *; do
! 		eval mv '"$i"' \"`echo "$i" | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`\"
  	    done

      If you have the "perl" language installed, you may find this rename
      script by Larry Wall very useful.  It can be used to accomplish a
      wide variety of filename changes.
--- 392,405 ----
  	Bourne Shell:

  	    for f in *; do
! 		eval mv '"$f"' \"`echo "$f" | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`\"
  	    done

+     (Some versions of "tr" require the [ and ], some don't.  It happens 
+      to be harmless to include them in this particular example; versions of
+      tr that don't want the [] will conveniently think they are supposed
+      to translate '[' to '[' and ']' to ']').
+ 
      If you have the "perl" language installed, you may find this rename
      script by Larry Wall very useful.  It can be used to accomplish a
      wide variety of filename changes.
***************
*** 563,568 ****
--- 581,593 ----
      You could then use

  	find /path -type d -exec ./doit {} \;
+     
+     Or if you want to avoid the "./doit" shell script, you can use
+ 
+ 	find /path -type d -exec sh -c 'command $0/*' {} \;
+     
+     (This works because within the 'command' of "sh -c 'command' A B C ...",
+      $0 expands to A, $1 to B, and so on.)

      If all you're trying to do is cut down on the number of times
***************
*** 604,611 ****
      only permissions that count are the permissions on the file that
      the link points to.

! 18) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
      stand for?

      awk = "Aho Weinberger and Kernighan"
--- 629,672 ----
      only permissions that count are the permissions on the file that
      the link points to.

+ 18) When someone refers to 'rn(1)' or 'ctime(3)', what does
+     the number in parentheses mean?

!     It looks like some sort of function call, but it isn't.
!     These numbers refer to the section of the "Unix manual" where
!     the appropriate documentation can be found.  You could type
!     "man 3 ctime" to look up the manual page for "ctime" in section 3
!     of the manual.
! 
!     The standard manual sections are:
! 
! 	1	User-level  commands
! 	2	System calls
! 	3	Library functions
! 	4	Devices and device drivers
! 	5	File formats
! 	6	Games
! 	7	Various miscellaneous stuff - macro packages etc.
! 	8	System maintenance and operation commands
!     
!     
!     Each section has an introduction, which you can read with "man # intro"
!     where # is the section number.
! 
!     Sometimes the number is necessary to differentiate between a
!     command and a library routine or system call of the same name.  For
!     instance, your system may have "time(1)", a manual page about the
!     'time' command for timing programs, and also "time(3)", a manual
!     page about the 'time' subroutine for determining the current time.
!     You can use "man 1 time" or "man 3 time" to specify which "time"
!     man page you're interested in.
! 
!     You'll often find other sections for local programs or
!     even subsections of the sections above - Ultrix has
!     sections 3m, 3n, 3x and 3yp among others.
! 
! 
! 19) What does {awk,grep,fgrep,egrep,biff,cat,gecos,nroff,troff,tee,bss}
      stand for?

      awk = "Aho Weinberger and Kernighan"
***************
*** 705,711 ****
      Don Libes' book "Life with Unix" contains lots more of these
      tidbits.

! 19) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?

      You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
      about this topic on the net.  Some people say "vye", some say
--- 766,772 ----
      Don Libes' book "Life with Unix" contains lots more of these
      tidbits.

! 20) How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...?

      You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering
      about this topic on the net.  Some people say "vye", some say
***************
*** 719,862 ****
      dialects and accents.  

      Since this topic keeps coming up on the net, here is a comprehensive
!     pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past.
!     Origin unknown - please let me know if you know where it came from,
!     and I'll attribute it properly.

  Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
! with +, and names deserving futher explanation are marked with a #.  The
! explanations will be given at the very end.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  			   -- SINGLE CHARACTERS --

!      SPACE, blank

! !    EXCLAMATION POINT, exclamation mark, exclamation, exclam, excl, clam,
  	bang#, shout, yell, shriek, pling, factorial, ball-bat, smash, cuss,
! 	wow, hey, boing

! "    QUOTATION MARK, quote, double quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears,
! 	double ping, double glitch

  #    CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
  	hash, fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe,
! 	scratch, scratch mark, gardengate, gate, hak, oof, rake, sink

  $    DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#, 
! 	ding, big-money

! %    PERCENT SIGN, percent, mod+, shift-5, double-oh-seven, grapes

  &    AMPERSAND, and, amper, address+, shift-7, andpersand, snowman,
! 	bitand+, donald duck#, daemon

! '    APOSTROPHE, single quote, quote, tick, prime, irk, pop, spark, glitch

  *    ASTERISK, star, splat, spider, aster, times, wildcard*, gear, dingle,
! 	(Nathan) Hale#, bug, gem, twinkle

! ()   PARENTHESES, parens, round brackets, bananas, ears, bowlegs,
! 	parenthesee (singular only), weapons
! (    LEFT PARENTHESIS,  paren,  so,      wax,  parenthesee,   open,  sad
! )    RIGHT PARENTHESIS, thesis, already, wane, unparenthesee, close, happy
! 
! +    PLUS SIGN, plus, add, cross, and, intersection, and
! 
! ,    COMMA, tail
! 
! -    HYPHEN, minus, minus sign, dash, dak, option, flag, negative,
! 	negative sign, worm, bithorpe#

! .    PERIOD, dot, decimal, decimal point, radix point, point, spot, full stop,
! 	put#, floor

  /    SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
! 	across#, compress#, spare

! :    COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots

! ;    SEMICOLON, semi, hybrid

! <>   ANGLE BRACKETS, angles, funnels, brokets
  <    LESS THAN,    less, read from*, from*,        in*,  comesfrom*, crunch,
! 	sucks
  >    GREATER THAN, more, write to*,  into/toward*, out*, gazinta*,   zap,
! 	blows

! =    EQUAL SIGN, equals, equal, gets, quadrathorpe#, half-mesh

  ?    QUESTION MARK, question, query, whatmark, what, wildchar*, huh, ques,
! 	kwes, quiz, quark, hook
! 
! @    AT SIGN, at, each, vortex, whorl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape, cat,
! 	snable-a#, trunk-a#, rose, cabbage, Mercantile symbol

! []   BRACKETS, square brackets, U-turns, edged parentheses, mimics
! [    LEFT BRACKET,  bracket,   bra, square,   opensquare
! ]    RIGHT BRACKET, unbracket, ket, unsquare, close
! 
! \    BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, backslant, backwhack, backslat, 
! 	escape*, backslak, bak, reduce#
! 
! ^    CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop, 
! 	up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, to-the, fang, sharkfin,
! 	and#, xor+, wok, trap

! _    UNDERSCORE, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm, blank

! `    GRAVE, grave accent, accent, backquote, left/open quote, backprime, 
  	unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, backtick, push, backglitch,
! 	backping

  {}   BRACES, curly braces, squiggly braces, curly brackets, squiggle brackets,
! 	Tuborgs#, ponds
! {    LEFT BRACE,  brace,   curly,   leftit, embrace,  openbrace, begin+
! }    RIGHT BRACE, unbrace, uncurly, rytit,  bracelet, close,     end+

  |    VERTICAL BAR, pipe*, pipe to*, vertical line, broken line#, bar, or+,
  	bitor+, vert, v-bar, spike, to*, gazinta*, thru*, pipesinta*, tube,
! 	mark, whack, gutter, wall

  ~    TILDE, twiddle, tilda, tildee, wave, squiggle, swung dash, approx, 
! 	wiggle, enyay#, home*, worm

  			-- MULTIPLE CHARACTER STRINGS --

  !?	interrobang (one overlapped character)
! /*   	slashterix+
! */	asterslash+
! >>	appends*, cat-astrophe
  ->	arrow+, pointer to+, hiccup+
  #!	sh'bang, wallop
  \!*	bash-bang-splat
  ()	nil#
! &&	and+, amper-amper, succeeds-then*
! ||	or+, fails-then*

  				-- NOTES --

  ! bang		comes from old card punch phenom where punching ! code made a
! 		loud noise
  # octothorpe	from Bell System
  $ string	from BASIC
  $ escape	from TOPS-10
  & donald duck	from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck"
  * splat		from DEC "spider" glyph
  * Nathan Hale	"I have but one asterisk for my country."
  = quadrathorpe	half an octothorpe
  - bithorpe	half a quadrathorpe (So what's a monothorpe?)
  . put		Victor Borge on Electric Company
  / across	APL
  / compress	APL
  @ snable-a	from Danish; may translate as "trunk-a"
  @ trunk-a	"trunk" = "elephant nose"
! ^ and		from formal logic
  \ reduce	APL
  {} Tuborgs	from advertizing for well-known Danish beverage
  | broken line	EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
  ~ enyay		from the Spanish n-tilde
  () nil		LISP
--- 780,961 ----
      dialects and accents.  

      Since this topic keeps coming up on the net, here is a comprehensive
!     pronunciation list that has made the rounds in the past.  This list
!     is maintained by Maarten Litmaath, maart at cs.vu.nl .

  Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked
! with +, names derived from (Net)Hack are marked with & and names deserving
! futher explanation are marked with a #.  The explanations will be given at
! the very end.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  			   -- SINGLE CHARACTERS --

!      SPACE, blank, ghost&

! !    EXCLAMATION POINT, exclamation (mark), (ex)clam, excl, wow, hey, boing,
  	bang#, shout, yell, shriek, pling, factorial, ball-bat, smash, cuss,
! 	store#, potion&, not*+

! "    QUOTATION MARK, (double) quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears,
! 	double ping, double glitch, amulet&, web&

  #    CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#,
  	hash, fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe,
! 	scratch (mark), (garden)gate, hak, oof, rake, sink&, corridor&,
! 	unequal#

  $    DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#, 
! 	ding, big-money, gold&

! %    PERCENT SIGN, percent, mod+, shift-5, double-oh-seven, grapes, food&

  &    AMPERSAND, and, amper, address+, shift-7, andpersand, snowman,
! 	bitand+, donald duck#, daemon&, background*

! '    APOSTROPHE, (single) quote, tick, prime, irk, pop, spark, glitch,
! 	lurker above&

  *    ASTERISK, star, splat, spider, aster, times, wildcard*, gear, dingle,
! 	(Nathan) Hale#, bug, gem&, twinkle, funny button#, pine cone, glob*

! ()   PARENTHESES, parens, round brackets, bananas, ears, bowlegs
! (    LEFT PARENTHESIS,  (open) paren,  so,  wane,  parenthesee,   open,  sad,
! 	tool&
! )    RIGHT PARENTHESIS, already, wax, unparenthesee, close (paren), happy,
! 	thesis, weapon&
! 
! +    PLUS SIGN, plus, add, cross, and, intersection, door&, spellbook&
! 
! ,    COMMA, tail, trapper&
! 
! -    HYPHEN, minus (sign), dash, dak, option, flag, negative (sign), worm,
! 	bithorpe#

! .    PERIOD, dot, decimal (point), (radix) point, spot, full stop,
! 	put#, floor&

  /    SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak,
! 	across#, compress#, spare, divided-by, wand&

! :    COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon&

! ;    SEMICOLON, semi, hybrid, giant eel&, go-on#

! <>   ANGLE BRACKETS, angles, funnels, brokets, pointy brackets
  <    LESS THAN,    less, read from*, from*,        in*,  comesfrom*, crunch,
! 	sucks, left chevron#, open pointy (brack[et]), bra#, upstairs&
  >    GREATER THAN, more, write to*,  into/toward*, out*, gazinta*,   zap,
! 	blows, right chevron#, closing pointy (brack[et]), ket#, downstairs&

! =    EQUAL SIGN, equal(s), gets, becomes, quadrathorpe#, half-mesh, ring&

  ?    QUESTION MARK, question, query, whatmark, what, wildchar*, huh, ques,
! 	kwes, quiz, quark, hook, scroll&

! @    AT SIGN, at, each, vortex, whirl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape, cat,
! 	snable-a#, trunk-a#, rose, cabbage, Mercantile symbol, strudel#,
! 	fetch#, shopkeeper&, human&
! 
! []   BRACKETS, square brackets, U-turns, edged parentheses
! [    LEFT BRACKET,  bracket,   bra, (left) square (brack[et]),   opensquare,
! 	armor&
! ]    RIGHT BRACKET, unbracket, ket, right square (brack[et]), unsquare, close,
! 	mimic&
! 
! \    BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, (back)slant, backwhack, backslat, 
! 	escape*, backslak, bak, reduce#, opulent throne&
! 
! ^    CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, (top)hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop, 
! 	up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, power, to-the(-power), fang,
! 	sharkfin, and#, xor+, wok, trap&, pointer#, pipe*

! _    UNDERSCORE, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm, blank,
! 	chain&, gets#

! `    GRAVE, (grave) accent, backquote, left/open quote, backprime, 
  	unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, backtick, push, backglitch,
! 	backping, execute#, boulder&, rock&

  {}   BRACES, curly braces, squiggly braces, curly brackets, squiggle brackets,
! 	Tuborgs#, ponds, curly chevrons#, squirrly braces, hitchcocks#
! {    LEFT BRACE,  brace,   curly,   leftit, embrace,  openbrace, begin+,
! 	fountain&
! }    RIGHT BRACE, unbrace, uncurly, rytit,  bracelet, close,     end+, a pool&

  |    VERTICAL BAR, pipe*, pipe to*, vertical line, broken line#, bar, or+,
  	bitor+, vert, v-bar, spike, to*, gazinta*, thru*, pipesinta*, tube,
! 	mark, whack, gutter, wall&

  ~    TILDE, twiddle, tilda, tildee, wave, squiggle, swung dash, approx, 
! 	wiggle, enyay#, home*, worm, not+

  			-- MULTIPLE CHARACTER STRINGS --

  !?	interrobang (one overlapped character)
! */	asterslash+, times-div#
! /*   	slashterix+, slashaster
! :=	becomes#
! <-	gets
! <<	left-shift+, double smaller
! <>	unequal#
! >>	appends*, cat-astrophe, right-shift+, double greater
  ->	arrow+, pointer to+, hiccup+
  #!	sh'bang, wallop
  \!*	bash-bang-splat
  ()	nil#
! &&	and+, and-and+, amper-amper, succeeds-then*
! ||	or+, or-or+, fails-then*

  				-- NOTES --

  ! bang		comes from old card punch phenom where punching ! code made a
! 		loud noise; however, this pronunciation is used in the (non-
! 		computerized) publishing and typesetting industry in the U.S.
! 		too, so ...
! ! store		from FORTH
  # octothorpe	from Bell System
+ # unequal	e.g. Modula-2
  $ string	from BASIC
  $ escape	from TOPS-10
  & donald duck	from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck"
  * splat		from DEC "spider" glyph
  * Nathan Hale	"I have but one asterisk for my country."
+ * funny button	at Pacific Bell, * was referred to by employees as the "funny
+ 		button", which did not please management at all when it became
+ 		part of the corporate logo of Pacific Telesis, the holding
+ 		company ...
+ */ times-div	from FORTH
  = quadrathorpe	half an octothorpe
  - bithorpe	half a quadrathorpe (So what's a monothorpe?)
  . put		Victor Borge on Electric Company
  / across	APL
  / compress	APL
+ := becomes	e.g. Pascal
+ ; go-on		Algol68
+ < left chevron	from the military: worn vertically on the sleeve to signify
+ 		rating
+ < bra		from quantum mechanics
+ <> unequal	e.g. Pascal
+ > right chevron	see "< left chevron"
+ > ket		from quantum mechanics
  @ snable-a	from Danish; may translate as "trunk-a"
  @ trunk-a	"trunk" = "elephant nose"
! @ strudel	as in Austrian apple cake
! @ fetch		from FORTH
  \ reduce	APL
+ ^ and		from formal logic
+ ^ pointer	from PASCAL
+ _ gets		some alternative representation of underscore resembles a
+ 		backarrow
+ ` execute	from shell command substitution
  {} Tuborgs	from advertizing for well-known Danish beverage
+ {} curly chevr.	see "< left chevron"
+ {} hitchcocks	from the old Alfred Hitchcock show, with the stylized profile
+ 		of the man
  | broken line	EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken.
  ~ enyay		from the Spanish n-tilde
  () nil		LISP