HPR4607: UNIX Curio #3 - basename and dirname

Hosted by Vance on 2026-03-31 01:00:00

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Vance says: Correction

RE: hpr4607::2026-03-31 UNIX Curio #3 - basename and dirname by Vance
00:13:08 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
In a recent conversation, a friend pointed out that historical BSD versions were not necessarily developed or released in numerical order. Instead, 2.xBSD versions were created to run on the PDP-11 while 3BSD and 4.xBSD ran on the VAX (until support was added to 4.x for other processors); both evolved alongside each other.

In the audio for this episode, I implied that the 'basename' utility first appeared in BSD in version 2.9 (1983), while it actually was in 3BSD from 1979, shortly after Bell Laboratories' Seventh Edition UNIX came out. Similarly, I incorrectly said that the first BSD 'dirname' appeared in was 4.4 (1993), when it was in the Net/2 release from 1991. Sorry about that!

Probably others like me have fallen into the trap of assuming a larger version number always came later, but I should have paid closer attention to dates. (Discussion of the history does not appear in the show notes above, just the audio.)

P.S. Glad you are liking these, xmanmonk! More are on the way.

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