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Comment by crgwbr | Hacker News Reader

So am I the only one who calls "-" a tack? As in chmod tack R

I first heard that on the Hak5 podcast, and assumed it was a Virginia think (Darren's from Virginia), but later he realized that no one else said it that way and it took a while for him to remember where he'd learned that. I think he got it from his friend "mubix" (Rob Fuller) who is a US Marine and apparently the Marines call it a "tack". Not sure if it's true or if mubix just invented that, but it's my best guess :)

I also call it a "tac". The habit comes from my time in the Navy, where it comes from the naming conventions for compartments (rooms) on a ship. Marines probably call it that for the same reasons, as many of them end up being on a ship at some point (and they're part of the Department of the Navy, so they share a lot of tradition with sailors).

e.g. "3-74-4-E" would be pronounced "three tac seventy-four tac four tac echo" (3rd deck, 74th frame aft of the bow, 2nd compartment outboard of the centerline on the port side, and it's an engineering space)

I've also avoided calling it a "dash" since I left the Navy, since dashes and hyphens are different characters in typography.

Never heard that one before. "dash" or "minus" is all I've ever come across.

Minus always annoys me, because it's long and most times (e.g., chmod <dash>R )you're never actually minusing anything. *

* Some Solaris commands use plus and minus to add and subtract things, but a) everyone hates Solaris commands b) this breaks with convention, hence a).

Yes, I agree. Most "minus" people from my experience have been non-programmers, or at least non-everyday-unix-users that I've either had to train or walk through procedures, etc. And almost universally young.

I suppose 'minus' makes things slightly longer, but is there a way to distinguish between R and r without three extra syllables? Both are likely to come up when chmodding.

"Big 'r'" and "small 'r'"?

Yeah, "minus" is math and sounds wrong on the command line.

What about 'hyphen'? I use 'minus' / 'hyphen' depending on context.

I use "dash" too, but the "-" character is technically a hyphen. Two hyphens ("--") make a dash.

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