[TUHS] More Lost BTL UNIX Literature Procured

[Arnold Robbins via TUHS]

Matt,

This is great! I remember reading this document, but apparently I
didn't copy it for myself at the time. My favorite part is to be found
on page 5 of attachment 1, indicating changes:

	sort(1)	The destroy-your-input-file feature is gone.  This used
		to be accomplished by saying sort -ooutput input.  If
		there was no space between the -o and the output file,
		the input file was assumed to be the argument to the -o
		and truncated to zero.

Thanks for recovering this.

Arnold

segaloco via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:

> On Wednesday, April 1st, 2026 at 16:05, segaloco via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
>
> > Howdy folks, I've got some exciting news for UNIX document preservation.
> > I just closed this purchase:
> > 
> > ...
> > 
> > - Matt G.
> >
>
> I just couldn't hold my excitement any longer, I decided to short
> circuit my scan backlog and scan this, the Product Release Description
> for UNIX Release 4.0:
>
> https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/Manuals/Unix_4.0/UNIX_Product_Release_Description_Release_4.0.pdf
>
> Lots of good stuff there, this is the predecessor of the System Release
> Description distributed with System V, similarly it has an MR report
> which, with the System V one, could be used to reconstruct Release 4.0
> to a highly accurate degree at least as far as the interface is
> concerned.
>
> I've been feeling quite sentimental scanning this one because it was
> nearly two decades ago when I first got into UNIX-like systems and
> started getting curious about why there wasn't a System IV.  That single
> question, what happened to System IV, is the flashpoint that eventually
> lead me to all of this documentation work.  This feels like the
> conclusion of a long and winding road, but also just the beginning.  Now
> I can set about the task of reconstructing a UNIX Release 4.0
> work-alike, achieving partially the goal of preserving the running
> system, although that would be in name only.  I'm still holding out hope
> some real tapes might surface eventually.
>
> In any case, I'm over the moon about finally finding these.  This isn't
> the only Release 4.0 literature in this lot, the other I plan on
> scanning after I finish that SVR2 manual is a manpage supplement and the
> original release notification for Release 4.0.  The PRD here indicates
> that indeed:
>
> > No new hardcopy user's manual will be produced for this release, but the
> > delivered on-line copy is correct and up-to-date.  In addition, some
> > machine reproducible documents are included on the release tape.
>
> Confirming what Arnold Robbins and others have indicated, that BTL saw
> no need to do a print run of the Release 4.0 literature.  That makes
> this stack of manpage edits the closest thing to a Release 4.0 physical
> manual publication.  Couple that with the Volume 2 issues and flipbook
> from Arnold Robbins and there are now very few holes left in the
> documentation history of Release 4.0.
>
> I will be sharing more documents from this lot as time goes on but this
> one was just so special and sentimental to me that I had to bump it to
> the top.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> - Matt G.