[TUHS] SCCS roach motel

[Larry McVoy]

On Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 08:27:54PM -0500, Dan Cross wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 8:12???PM Marc Rochkind <mrochkind at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 2:10???PM Dan Cross <crossd at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I had heard a story once, that based on what you wrote today, I now
> >> think is apocryphal and never actually happened.
> >>
> >> The story was that there was a bug in early SCCS where a source file
> >> had to be checked in twice before it could be (successfully) checked
> >> out. The bug was such that if one only checked it in once and tried to
> >> check it out, it would truncate the file. "Programmers using it just
> >> learned to check in twice."
> >>
> >> I never used SCCS extensively, and certainly never observed that
> >> behavior, so chucked it up to the bug having been long fixed. As I
> >> mentioned above, I doubt it was ever there to begin with. A fun story,
> >> though.
> >
> > This is completely ridiculous. No program I wrote ever had one of those bug things.
> 
> Oh dear, I do hope no offense was taken.  As I said, I firmly believe
> the story was apocryphal.
> 
> The identity of the person from whom I heard it is probably known to
> at least some of the USENIX old school crew; I rather thought at the
> time they were under the impression that SCCS was the result of a
> large team, or perhaps some kind of fork.
> 
> Anyway, I don't mean to belabor the point. Please accept my apologies
> if the story rubbed you the wrong way.

I'm 90% sure Marc was joking, I got it.