The Unix Acronym List: Unix Commands

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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

Acronym	Meaning
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

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© 2006 Wolfram Rösler
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Last update: 20 May 2006