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From: chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer
Subject: Re: File "type"
Message-ID: <26768@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 29 Sep 90 05:16:56 GMT
References: <171@alchemy.UUCP> <13114@june.cs.washington.edu> <1990Sep27.145844.28546@siia.mv.com>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 21

In article <1990Sep27.145844.28546@siia.mv.com> drd@siia.mv.com (David Dick)
writes:
[in response to `the BSD file program database is contained inside the BSD
file program']
>... a hard-coded database ... [is] quite contrary to the original
>idea of editable control files in UNIX.  (Of course, how many other
>things are there in BSD UNIX that are contrary to the original idea
>of UNIX? :-)

Sounds like revisionist history to me :-)

The 4.[0123]BSD `file' program is a direct descendent of the original
research Unix `file' program.  It was somewhere along the USG/USDL tree
that the System V `file' program acquired an external database.

CSRG have an external-database `file', but in some ways it has turned
out not to work as well.  We are still running a locally-hacked version
of the 4.3BSD `file' here.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 405 2750)
Domain:	chris@cs.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris