[TUHS] V7 ls and dot files?

[Dan Cross]

On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 3:01 PM Rik Farrow <rik at rikfarrow.com> wrote:
> I thought so too, but found this reference to a Version 1 mkdir:
>
> https://man.cat-v.org/unix-1st/1/mkdir
>
> I recall reading a Version 6 or 7 man page about mkfs that included the ability to populate a file system with some directories, and I thought that implied that users couldn't create directories. The man page referenced above hints that mkdir is run as the 'system user', presumably root, and becomes the owner of new directories.

That's the man page for the `mkdir` command, but I think the
distinction was for the system call. Before the introduction of
`mkdir(2)`, directories were created by `mknod(2)`, and that was true
through the 7th Edition and into 32/v.

I would have thought that `mkdir` came with FFS and indeed, it's not
in 3BSD or 4.0BSD; looks like it came with 4.1c.1, which is where UFS
starts to be integrated.

        - Dan C.

> On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 4:28 AM Jaap Akkerhuis <jaapna at xs4all.nl> wrote:
>>
>> I seem to remember that V7 was the first suystem which had a mkdir system call. That might have changed what ls -a showed.
>>
>>         jaap
>>