The UNIX time-sharing system

  • Authors:
  • Dennis M. Ritchie;Ken Thompson

  • Affiliations:
  • Bell Lab, Murray Hill, NJ;Bell Lab, Murray Hill, NJ

  • Venue:
  • Communications of the ACM
  • Year:
  • 1974

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Abstract

UNIX is a general-purpose, multi-user, interactive operating system for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11/40 and 11/45 computers. It offers a number of features seldom found even in larger operating systems, including: (1) a hierarchical file system incorporating demountable volumes; (2) compatible file, device, and inter-process I/O; (3) the ability to initiate asynchronous processes; (4) system command language selectable on a per-user basis; and (5) over 100 subsystems including a dozen languages. This paper discusses the nature and implementation of the file system and of the user command interface.