On Thu, Mar 16, 2023 at 6:12 PM James Youngman <j...@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> Interesting question. I just asked Herb Gellis, the inventor of
> xargs. No answer yet.
The answer turns out to be "eXecute command with ARGumentS". The
first letter is "x" because there was no other command beginning with
"x" at the time.
The attached patch adds an explanation to the documentation. Comments
are very welcome. I will apply this myself if there's no feedback
after a couple of days.
Thanks,
James.
From 545d4a42d60bfedee2c6013c0bf6a03f54e01969 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: James Youngman <ja...@youngman.org>
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2023 09:37:53 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] [doc] describe history of find, xargs and locate.
To: findutils-patc...@gnu.org
---
doc/find.texi | 87 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
find/find.1 | 21 +++++++++++++
xargs/xargs.1 | 9 ++++++
3 files changed, 105 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/find.texi b/doc/find.texi
index e43eede7..cad90100 100644
--- a/doc/find.texi
+++ b/doc/find.texi
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
* Worked Examples:: Examples demonstrating more complex points.
* Security Considerations:: Security issues relating to findutils.
* Error Messages:: Explanations of some messages you might see.
+* History:: History of find, xargs and locate.
* GNU Free Documentation License:: Copying and sharing this manual.
* Primary Index:: The components of @code{find} expressions.
@end menu
@@ -91,15 +92,11 @@ principal programs that you use to perform these tasks are
this manual use capabilities specific to the GNU versions of those
programs.
-GNU @code{find} was originally written by Eric Decker, with
-enhancements by David MacKenzie, Jay Plett, and Tim Wood. GNU
-@code{xargs} was originally written by Mike Rendell, with enhancements
-by David MacKenzie. GNU @code{locate} and its associated utilities
-were originally written by James Woods, with enhancements by David
-MacKenzie. The idea for @samp{find -print0} and @samp{xargs -0} came
-from Dan Bernstein. The current maintainer of GNU findutils (and this
-manual) is James Youngman. Many other people have contributed bug
-fixes, small improvements, and helpful suggestions. Thanks!
+@ref{History} for a history of @code{find}, @code{locate} and
+@code{xargs}. The current maintainers of GNU findutils (and this
+manual) are Bernhard Voelker and James Youngman. Many other people
+have contributed bug fixes, small improvements, and helpful
+suggestions. Thanks!
To report a bug in GNU findutils, please use the form on the Savannah
web site at
@@ -5052,9 +5049,9 @@ use @code{make} to update the timestamps:
@smallexample
makefile=$(mktemp)
find subdir \
- \( \! -xtype l \) \
- -newer timestamp \
- -printf "timestamp:: %p\n\ttouch -r %p timestamp\n\n" > "$makefile"
+ \( \! -xtype l \) \
+ -newer timestamp \
+ -printf "timestamp:: %p\n\ttouch -r %p timestamp\n\n" > "$makefile"
make -f "$makefile"
rm -f "$makefile"
@end smallexample
@@ -5857,6 +5854,72 @@ error messages, but none seem to be candidates for guidance. If
you are having a problem understanding one of these, ask for help on
@email{bug-findutils@@gnu.org}.
+
+@node History
+@chapter History
+
+@section History of @code{find}
+
+A @code{find} program appeared in Version 5 Unix as part of the
+Programmer's Workbench project and was written by Dick Haight. Doug
+McIlroy's @cite{A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts from the
+Programmer’s Manual, 1971-1986} provides some additional details; you
+can read it on-line at
+@url{https://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/reader.pdf}.
+
+GNU @code{find} was originally written by Eric Decker, with
+enhancements by David MacKenzie, Jay Plett, and Tim Wood. The idea
+for @samp{find -print0} and @samp{xargs -0} came from Dan Bernstein.
+
+@section History of @code{xargs}
+
+The @code{xargs} program was invented by Herb Gellis at Bell Labs. In
+his own words:
+
+@quotation
+Hi James, Thanks for reaching out. Yes I invented @code{xargs} way
+back before we even released UNIX to the general public when it was
+running on PDP-11 machines with little memory, and capable shell
+programs were not there yet - kind of like early IBM PC-DOS command
+lines. The name came about, first, by noticing at the time there were
+no commands beginning with @samp{x} (silly reason, I know), and then
+came up with, basically, "eXecute command with ARGumentS". This
+obviously allowed one to process files, sequentially, including
+batches of files, while the UNIX command line buffer was very tiny. I
+don't remember exactly how small but possibly only 512 bytes. The very
+first use intended was to allow compiling C programs that were broken
+into many small routines whose total name length would exceed the
+command line buffer. Hope this settles the matter! Oh, another arcane
+factoid about @code{xargs} at the beginning was that I was able to
+keep it smaller than 4k (I think that was the amount) which at the
+time was the maximum size of a file segment on PDP-11/UNIX, so that
+the program could be loaded completely on the first segment, without
+having to go back and get chains of further segments - Hence fast!
+@end quotation
+
+GNU @code{xargs} isn't derived from the original Bell Labs program.
+It was originally written by Mike Rendell, with enhancements by David
+MacKenzie.
+
+@section History of @code{locate}
+
+4.3-BSD introduced the @dfn{fast-find} feature, in which the command
+@code{find needle} would look for a file named @samp{needle}. This
+took advantage of the fact that, at the time, there was no valid
+two-argument @code{find} invocation. The implementation was much
+faster than searching the whole file system in real time, because it
+used a pre-built file name database. This functionality is described
+in more detail in @cite{Finding Files Fast} by James Woods (Usenix
+;login, Volume 8 Issue 1, pages. 8-10, 1983).
+
+Standardisation of @code{find} led to this functionality being moved
+into the @code{locate} program in 4.4-BSD. The command @code{find
+needle} now unambiguously means ``start searching at the file
+@code{needle} and print the names of the files you encounter''.
+
+GNU @code{locate} and its associated utilities were originally written
+by James Woods, with enhancements by David MacKenzie.
+
@node GNU Free Documentation License
@appendix GNU Free Documentation License
@include fdl.texi
diff --git a/find/find.1 b/find/find.1
index 544778e4..671e3260 100644
--- a/find/find.1
+++ b/find/find.1
@@ -2606,6 +2606,27 @@ or
may not have been performed.
.
.SH "HISTORY"
+
+A
+.B find
+program appeared in Version 5 Unix as part of the
+Programmer's Workbench project and was written by Dick Haight. Doug
+McIlroy's
+.I A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts from the Programmer’s Manual, 1971-1986
+provides some additional details; you can read it on-line at
+<https://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/reader.pdf>.
+
+GNU
+.B find
+was originally written by Eric Decker, with
+enhancements by David MacKenzie, Jay Plett, and Tim Wood. The idea
+for
+.B find -print0
+and
+.B xargs -0
+came from Dan Bernstein.
+.
+.SH "COMPATIBILITY"
As of findutils-4.2.2, shell metacharacters (`*', `?' or `[]' for
example) used in filename patterns match a leading `.', because
IEEE POSIX interpretation 126 requires this.
diff --git a/xargs/xargs.1 b/xargs/xargs.1
index 87450992..de6fbc69 100644
--- a/xargs/xargs.1
+++ b/xargs/xargs.1
@@ -415,6 +415,15 @@ is that small. The
option can be used to discover the actual limits in force on the
current system.
.
+.SH "HISTORY"
+
+The
+.B xargs
+program was invented by Herb Gellis at Bell Labs.
+See the Texinfo manual for findutils,
+.IR "Finding Files" ,
+for more information.
+.
.SH "BUGS"
It is not possible for
.B xargs
--
2.30.2
