From: raf@sunraf.eng.sun.com (Roger A. Faulkner)
Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?
Date: 1997/06/15
Message-ID: <5o1u75$ocn$1@engnews2.Eng.Sun.COM>#1/1
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References: <01bc711f$f03ebea0$101e71c6@microman> <5n7g8s$fki@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <5nci2o$30t@sylph.u-net.com>
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For your edification, this is the geneaology of the name "truss",
taken from some mail sent by one of Ron Gomes (my cohort wrt /proc
in SVR4) or me, dated Sep 26, 1988):
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We considered, and discarded, several alternative names for truss(1),
including "trace", before settling on "truss".  The objection to
"trace" is that it's too generic a term and shouldn't be co-opted
for a specific use like this; there are lots of other things that
one might trace.  Among the alternate names we considered were:
"ptrace"  (but this incorrectly implies a connection with ptrace(2)),
"strace"  (but this is already used for some streams tracing thing),
"tss"     for "trace syscalls and signals" (but this is certainly bad),
"sst"     a permutation of "tss" (but this implies it's blinding fast),
"trss"    another variation of "tss" (but this is unpronouncable).
Adding the obvious vowel gave us "truss", which can be construed
to mean "TRace Unix Syscalls and Signals".

"truss" seems to have the right combination of mnemonic value
and disrespect for authority ("If your program doesn't work, put
it in a truss.")  It conjures up a mental image which is fairly
accurate, considering what the program does.

Roger Faulkner
roger.faulkner@eng.sun.com