My co-workers and I are trying to figure out the correct pronunciation for the unix utility “sudo.” So far, there have been two equally compelling cases put forward:
It’s pronounced “soo-doo”. The sudo utility lets you run a single command as the system’s superuser (as if you had used “su” to become superuser for that one command.) So it’s “su” plus “do”.
It’s pronounced “pseudo.” Because that’s how it looks, and you’re running a command as a “pseudo” superuser.
Does anybody know, which is it? Or is it just one of those technololgy terms that people delight in intentionally keeping vague?
I say soo-doo, because it’s letting the SuperUser DO something. This is supported by the fact that those who are allowed to use sudo are listed in the /etc/sudoers file. My information comes from man sudo.
I also say this is probably an IMHO thread, unless there is a definite answer (or a really good guess ;)).
Never really thought about it. I always called it ‘soo-doe’ more for the fact that I thought it was ‘superuser domain’ than anything else. most of the time i have heard it as ‘soo-doe’ but never thought of the pseudo element.
i dont really know what it is but here is a greenies viewpoint
“Sudo (superuser do) allows a system administrator to give certain users (or groups of users) the ability to run some (or all) commands as root or another user while logging the commands and arguments.”
my first reaction to the word what its relationship to pseudo
but since it is a nomen for novanomens that wont hold
I always pronounce it “Soo-Doe”, but the few times I’ve actually thought about it, I’ve pronounced it “ESS-YOU-DOO”, since when I su I don’t “soo”, I “ESS-YOU”.
Not that I’m authoritative on unix pronunciation. heh.
Naaah, I think the correct answer is “both”, because I’d be amazed if it weren’t a deliberate visual pun/double meaning with some cute recursive characteristics (you are “doing” something as a “pseudo superuser” when you use “superuser do”), rather than just a coincidence. . The compgeek world, Unix in particular, is a repository of cute naming conventions. Consider PHP, which stands recursively for “PHP Hypertext Precursor” (cuz if it’s a PREcursor it should come BEFORE, see?) and bash, the “bourne again” shell which is a modification of the bourne shell (cute, huh?), and TWAIN (“technology without an interesting acronym”) and WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator), another recursive acronym.
And don’t forget GNU (pronounced “guh-noo”), which stands for GNU’s Not UNIX, when it most certainly is a project to produce a very close UNIX clone.
UNIX, however, is owned by AT&T (it was devloped in Bell Labs), and Stallman wanted to create a fully liberated OS and software suite. Hence, GNU’s Not UNIX.
Recursive acronyms are popular in the hacker community.
The HURD, Stallman’s pedantically-correct (microkernel) OS that he’s been working on since the early 90s with no real signs of big progress, stands for “HIRD of UNIX-Replacing Daemons”. HIRD, in turn, stands for “HURD of Interfaces Representing Depth.”
