[TUHS] A question about ls(1)

jcs lists at irreal.org
Mon Apr 29 00:44:00 AEST 2019


Dan Cross <crossd at gmail.com> writes:

> On Sat, Apr 27, 2019 at 10:26 AM Anthony Martin 
> <ality at pbrane.org> wrote:
>
>> From at least V2 to V6, the ls(1) command would not
>> show directory entries whose names began with a '.'
>> unless the -a flag was supplied.

[snip]

>> Was the initial behavior intentional or just a
>> matter of expediency?
>>
>
> I believe it's been publicly stated that it was a mistake in 
> early Unix.
> Apparently, Rob Pike had a Google+ post to this effect back in 
> 2012 (or
> earlier): I see a reference to it from another mailing list 
> around that
> time. Unfortunately, the Google+ content is now lost. Rob, do 
> you have a
> copy?

Here's a tweet that shows the post: 
https://twitter.com/rauchg/status/698689290667053060/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E698689290667053060


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