THE UNIX ACRONYM LIST

Unix Commands

A B C D E F G I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

AcronymMeaning
adb Algol or absolute or assembly or advanced debugger (see here)
ar archiver
as assembler
atob ASCII to binary
awk Aho, Weinberger, Kernighan (names of program authors)
bash Bourne again shell
bc better or basic calculator (in early Unix versions: B compiler)
bsh Bourne shell (name of program author)
btoa binary to ASCII
c89 1989 (ANSI/ISO-)C compiler
cal calendar
cat concatenate
cb C beautifier
cc C compiler
chgrp change group
chmod change mode
chown change owner
chsh change shell
ci check in
cmp compare
co check out
comm common
cp copy
cpio copy (archive files) in and out (of an archive)
cpp C pre-processor
cron Chronos (greek god)
csh C shell (resembles the syntax of the C programming language)
...d daemon (e. g. inetd = internet daemon)
dbx extended debugger (?) or DBX (=extended decibel, noise reduction system; see here)
dc desk calculator
dd Optinion 1: Dataset Definition (named after the OS/3x0 JCL DD command who's syntax it also ripped off as a joke; see here)
Opinion 2: Copy and convert (called dd because cc is the C compiler; see here)
Opinions 3-n: data, device, disk, dump in various combinations
df disk free
diff difference
diff3 differences of three files
dirname directory name
du disk usage
ed editor
egrep extended grep
elm electronic mail
emacs editing macros
Sometimes: Eight megabytes and constantly swapping
or: Escape Meta Alternate Control Shift
or: Emacs makes any computer slow
eqn equation
eval evaluate
ex extended editor (?)
expr expression
fc fix command
fgrep fixed-string grep
fmt format
fsck file system check
ftio fast tape input/output
ftp file transfer protocol
fuser file user
g... GNU
getty get tty
grep global regular expression print (from the ed subcommand g/RE/p where RE is a regular expression)
id identity
imake interface to make
irc internet relay chat
jsh job-control shell
ksh Korn shell (from David Korn, program author)
ld link editor or loader
lex lexical analyser
lint not an acronym (removes lint from programs)
lharc Lempl-Huffman archiver (algorithm authors)
ln link
logname log-in name
lorder library order
lpc line printer control
lpd line printer daemon
lpq line printer queue
lpr line print
lprm line printer remove (from queue)
ls list
m4 macro processor version 4 (successor of M3)
man manual
mkfs make file system
mknod make node
mv move
mvdir move directory
mwm Motif window manager
nawk new awk
nl number lines
nm names
nn no news
nohup no hang-up
nroff new roff
oclock O shaped clock (?)
od octal dump
passwd password
pax portable archive exchange
pcc portable C compiler
pg pager
pgp pretty good privacy
pico pine composer
pine first pine is nearly elm, later pine is no longer elm and finally program for Internet news and e-mail (see here)
ping not an acronym (named after the sound that a sonar makes, see here)
povray persistence of vision raytracer
pr prepare (for printing)
prs print revision summary
prof profiler
ps process status
pwd print work directory
qdaemon queue daemon
r... remote (e. g. rsh = remote shell)
ranlib (create) random access library
rcp remote copy
rcs revision control system
rlogin remote login
rm remove
rmdel remove delta
rmail restricted mail (see here)
rmdir remove directory
rmt remote magnetic tape
rsh remote shell or restricted shell (sometimes Rsh)
roff run-off (similar program)
rz receive Z-modem
sar system activity report
sdb symbolic debugger
sed stream editor
sh shell
shar shell archive
stty set tty
su superuser (see here)
sync synchronize
sz send Z-modem
tar tape archive(r)
tbl table
tclsh Tcl shell
tcsh Tenex C shell (see here)
tee T pipe fitting (plumbing device)
telnet terminal over network
tex tau epsilon chi (greek letters)
tr translate
troff typesetter roff
tsh trusted shell
tsort topological sort
ttt tic tac toe
ulimit user's limit
uname Unix name (?)
uniq unique
uucp Unix-to-Unix communication protocol
vi visual (from the ex subcommand vi that switches into visual mode)
vim vi improved (previously: vi imitation)
wall write all
wc word count
wish windowing shell
...wm window manager
xargs extended arguments
xdm X display manager
xdpr X dump print
xfd X font display
xmkmf X make makefile
xrdb X resource database
xwd X window dump
xwud X window un-dump
yacc yet another compiler compiler
zip Ziv packer (algorithm author)

A B C D E F G I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


© 2006 Wolfram Rösler
wolfram@roesler-ac.de
Last update: 20 May 2006

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