Episode: 4574
Title: UNIX Curio #0 - Introduction
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4574/hpr4574.mp3
Transcribed: 2026-07-31 16:14:14 (official HPR transcript)

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4574, for 2026-02-12
Today's show is entitled, "UNIX Curio #0 - Introduction"
The host is Vance and the duration is 00:09:49
The flag is Clean, and the license is CC-BY-SA
The summary is "Overview of the series plus the hierarchy of files"
Hi there, I'm Vance and welcome to Unix Curio No. 0.
This series is dedicated to exploring little known, and occasionally useful, trinkets lurking
in the dusty corners of unix-like operating systems.
I'm calling this entry 0 of the series as it is mainly an introduction to what it's
supposed to be about and why you might want to listen.
So that you don't leave without getting at least one piece of useful information, it
will end with a little curio that you might not find helpful someday.
Back in 2010, I was the editor of the newsletter titled The Open Pit for the Western
Pennsylvania Linux User Group and Pittsburgh.
We distributed it as a 2-page PDF, so had to have enough material to fill each issue.
Because we were having trouble getting contributions, I started writing columns in a series
called Unix Curio to occupy the empty space.
These were inspired in large part by examples that I had seen of people reinventing
ways to do things when utilities for the same purpose had already existed for a long time.
The obvious question is, just what is a Unix Curio?
Let's start with the first word, Unix.
The history of Unix is quite complex.
I've put a link in the show notes to get you started if you want to go down that particular
rabbit hole.
The short version of the story is that many variants emerged, often introducing incompatibilities.
Even within AT&T Bell Laboratories, two major branches came out.
The research Unix lineage, which includes seventh edition, sometimes called version 7,
was often used in universities and government, while system 3, and it's more popular
successor system 5, were clearly intended as commercial products.
Traditionally, system 3 and system 5 are written with Roman numerals while research Unix
versions are written with Arabic numerals.
The University of California's BSD, the Berkeley Software Distribution, was also very influential.
My intention in this series is to talk about things that are relatively common.
Ideally, there would be present on a large majority of systems so that you can actually
use them.
Luckily, with these variants arising from different places, there were people who
recognized the value in compatibility.
So in the mid-1980s, they initiated the development of the POSIX standards.
Publication of these not only caused commercial Unix versions to aim for performance,
it also gave free software implementations of utilities and operating systems, a stable
base to shoot for, rather than having to chase multiple moving targets.
As a result, today's GNU Linux, Free BSD, Net BSD, and Open BSD systems generally behave
as specified in POSIX, even if they haven't officially earned the Unix or POSIX labels.
So I treat all these as being part of the Unix world.
Moving on to the second word, Curio, it just means an objective curiosity
often one considered novel, rare, or bizarre.
There are many well-used utilities in the Unix world, but people forget about others
because they are only useful in specific circumstances.
And when those circumstances arise, these obscure ones don't always get remembered.
One purpose of this series is to point out some of these and describe where they can be
appropriately put to use. With the flexible tools available on Unix-like systems,
and the ability to easily string them together, it shouldn't be surprising that people come
up with new ways to accomplish tasks. I don't want to claim that these Curios are always the best
way to do something, just that it can be helpful to know that they exist and see the way that someone
else solved the problem. Also, if you're using an unfamiliar system,
sometimes programs that you're accustomed to employing might not be installed.
So it's good to know about options that are widely available.
So why am I the person to talk about this subject?
I am not a Unix graveyard with decades of professional computing experience.
If I did grow a beard, it would only be partially gray, and my working life has been spent in the
engineering world, mainly around safety equipment. Sadly there, I have been forced to use windows
almost exclusively. However, in my academic and personal pursuits, I've been involved with using
Unix and Linux for more than 30 years, so I do have a bit of a historical perspective.
For some reason, when I encounter an unusual or obscure tool, I want to learn more about it.
Especially so if I find it to be useful in some way.
After gaining this information, I might as well share it with you.
In addition, I've been involved with Toastmasters International
a public speaking organization for about 15 years, so I have experience in presenting things
worldly. I was inspired to turn this article series into podcasts by another host,
Murph, who delivered a presentation at the 2025 OLF conference, describing how and why to contribute
to Hacker Public Radio. The show notes for Curios 133 will consist of the articles as they
were originally written, though with references added. Because some of the examples in these,
especially the code, can be difficult to understand when they are read out loud,
the podcasts will sometimes present the information in a different way.
The show notes for this Curios 0 and for Curios 4 and later will be written with the podcast format
in mind, so they will more closely match what I say. Now that I've given you the background,
let's end with an actual Curio to kick off the series. Have you ever needed a reminder
about whether the file that you're looking for can be found under the slash user or slash
bar directories? On many unique systems, there is a manual page that will give you an overview
of how the file hierarchy is organized. Try Man Higher that is spelled HIER or in the phonetic
alphabet, Hotel India Echo Romeo, it's an abbreviation for hierarchy. This manual page is not
a standard, but it was present in 7th edition Unix and many descendants direct and indirect,
including every Linux distribution that I have ever used. There are attempts to standardize the file
layout. In the Linux world, the file system hierarchy standard, now hosted by freedeskop.org,
intends to set a path to be followed. It should be noted that system D has its own idea of how
things should be laid out based on the file system hierarchy standard. If the system you're using
has system D, try Man, file, hyphen, hierarchy instead, as it will likely be a more accurate description.
I hope this gives you a good idea of what to expect in future episodes. The first Unix Curio
will be about shell archives, so keep an eye on hacker public radio schedule for it to appear.
If you have a question or a suggestion for a future topic, please comment on this episode on the
HPR website.
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