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theTuxRacer
Asked: 2011-01-27 23:44:41 +0800 CST

What does rc, in bashrc, nanorc stand for?

  • 772

Is there any long-form, if at all? Or is it just a tradition from the 80's?

configuration

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I've heard

    • run commands
    • resource control
    • run control
    • runtime configuration

    Personally, I'd go with run control, because ESR says so.

    http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch10s03.html

    His footnote says:

     The ‘rc’ suffix goes back to Unix's grandparent, CTSS.
 It had a command-script feature called "runcom". Early
 Unixes used ‘rc’ for the name of the operating system's
 boot script, as a tribute to CTSS runcom.

    Wikipedia chooses "run commands" as the default long-form, but admits that context should determine word choice.

     While not historically precise, rc may also be pronou-
 nced as "run control", because an rc file controls how
 a program runs. For instance, the editor Vim looks for
 and reads the contents of the .vimrc file to determine
 its initial configuration. The most sensible pronunci-
 ation depends on the function of the file: to start
 something up, or to control how something starts up.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_Commands

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  2. According to this source -- http://kb.iu.edu/data/abdr.html -- it means "run commands"

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  3. This link gives an interesting explanation for few commands.

    According to it rc stands for "runcom" which in turn stands for Run Commands.

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