[OT] What Does "/etc" Stand For and Why?

[Tollef Fog Heen]

* Brett Kirksey 

| Thanks for the response. Do you know _why_ it stands for "et
| cetera"? I mean they could have used "/etc" for the name of the
| "/var" directory just as easily. Why didn't they name it "/cfg" for
| config or "/prf" for preferences? The question really is, if "/etc"
| really means "et cetera", why did they choose such a generic name
| for a directory in which very specific things go?

It used to contain lots of stuff which wasn't config files as well,
like a bunch of binaries, some system databases and such; you can, to
a certain degree, still find those on UNIX systems today.

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen                                                        ,''`.
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are      : :' :
                                                                      `. `' 
                                                                        `-