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From: rmyers@net1.ucsd.edu (Robert Myers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: UNIX history made easy
Message-ID: <1995@network.ucsd.edu>
Date: 4 Oct 89 01:43:48 GMT
References: <IZ9Hkde00WB58=V2pf@andrew.cmu.edu> <20226@usc.edu> <Sep.30.21.29.38.1989.9534@elbereth.rutgers.edu> <17085@rpp386.cactus.org>
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In article <17085@rpp386.cactus.org> jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II) writes:
>In article <Sep.30.21.29.38.1989.9534@elbereth.rutgers.edu> bschwart@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Not a Rich Republican) writes:
>>In article <20226@usc.edu> gazit@cs.duke.edu (Hillel) writes:
>>>In article <IZ9Hkde00WB58=V2pf@andrew.cmu.edu> mg32+@andrew.cmu.edu
>>>(Michael Ginsberg) writes:
>>>
>>>>what DOES grep stand for???
>>
>>It is named after the author of the program:  Gregula Rex Pression, Ph.D.
>
>No, it is named after the names of the four authors who worked on
>the original regular expression matching code for the UNIX editor
>'ed'.
>
>Their names are Gregior, Ritchie, Ebersol, and Pike.  Micheal

NO, "grep" does not stand for the so-called author's names.  It is
a more intuitive or UNIX-ish type of abbreviation.  If you think in
terms of ed/ex/vi you can see that "grep" is actually "g/<re>/p".
The g stands for "global search", the <re> for "regular expression",
and the p for "print".  The /'s are separators, required by the
syntax.  Executing such a command in ed or at the ":" prompt
in vi (or ex) will result in the search and display (ie printing) of
any line satisfying the regular expression.  This is also the
result of using the UNIX utility "grep".

Actually, "Gregula Rex Pression, Ph.D.", in a twisted way, sums it up nicely.

Raul Rathmann
raul@sdnp1.ucsd.edu
(Using and abusing this account in lieu of R. Myers)