18 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
18 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>README file</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../R.html" title="R"/><link rel="previous" href="read-only-user.html" title="read-only user"/><link rel="next" href="real.html" title="real"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">README file</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="read-only-user.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">R</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="real.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="README-file"/><dt xmlns="" id="README-file"><b>README file</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> Hacker's-eye introduction traditionally included in the top-level
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directory of a Unix source distribution, containing a pointer to more
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detailed documentation, credits, miscellaneous revision history, notes,
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etc. In the Mac and PC worlds, software is not usually distributed in
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source form, and the README is more likely to contain user-oriented
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material like last-minute documentation changes, error workarounds, and
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restrictions. When asked, hackers invariably relate the README convention
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to the famous scene in Lewis Carroll's <i class="citetitle">Alice's Adventures In
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Wonderland</i> in which Alice confronts magic munchies labeled
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“<span class="quote">Eat Me</span>” and “<span class="quote">Drink Me</span>”.</p><p>The file may be named README, or READ.ME, or rarely ReadMe or
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readme.txt or some other variant. The all-upper-case spellings,
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however, are universal among Unix programmers. By ancient tradition,
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real source files have all-lowercase names and all-uppercase is
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reserved for metadata, comments, and grafitti. This is functional;
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because 'A' sorts before 'a' in ASCII, the README will appear in directory
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listings before any source file.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="read-only-user.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../R.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="real.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">read-only user </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> real</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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