[sf-lug] ENVVAR1=set_it_to [...] command [args ...]; rc, ...

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):

> Ah, context, context.  I could see where the confusion could easily arise.
> rc, as in .bashrc, .initrc, etc. that old "rc" convention came from
> "run command"

Yeah, in Unix proto-history, it was indeed 'run commandS' (plural), not 'run
control' (nor 'run command'.  ;->).   It's  been a long time.
Apparently, the concept was swiped from the 'runcom' facility in MIT's
CTCS around 1965.  And, for much of that history after 1965, it was
actually more commonly called 'run control'.

> The "rc" seen in dpkg -l means something rather different, actually.

So _they_ say.

I'm sorry, but when a major Unix-family distribution ends up defining
configuration files as 'rc' files, and they say it has absolutely
nothing, nosiree-bob, to do with the historic rc files but rather stands
for remove = r+ conffiles = c, my answer is 'Sure, uh huh.  If you say
so.'  And back away slowly.