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How do you pronunce /usr?

I found in the net that someone reads it "user"... but, for what I know, this directory is not related to the user. The meaning of the acronym is "Unix specific (or system) resources".

How can we better read it, making it easy to immediately understand the sense of the scope of such folder?

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@RubanSavvy This has been discussed on the meta site before, and the moderators seem to agree that questions related to Unix history are on-topic. –  Thomas Nyman yesterday
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@illuminÉ I think this question can fall under "Using or administering a *nix desktop or server". To use or administer something, you need to be able to talk about it. Questions about *nix terminology are on topic IMO. There are actually quite a few of them already but, as you can see by the votes on this and similar questions, the community considers them on topic. In cases where the help docs and the community disagree, the community always wins. –  terdon yesterday
 
Thomas Nyman & terdon. I understand you both. The history of the /usr directory is certainly part of the history of Unix, and I can see the value in having knowledge about the use of an acronym in re "admin". Just hard to conceive that someone with even basic command of the English language wonders about the pronunciation of "usr" (just to be clear I'm no native speaker). That's why I think the answers to thisQ are about history and basically contain a line about pronunciation which comes as an afterthought. But I dig the inclusive spirit and respect the community's decision. –  illuminÉ yesterday
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/usr/bin/bad - Only one way to read it in my mind! –  Paddy yesterday
 
"The meaning of the acronym is Unix specific (or system) resources." Any research shows that 'USR' as an acronym for the user directory is 'retroactive'. –  nailer yesterday
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3 Answers

up vote 44 down vote accepted

In the original Unix implementations, /usr used to contain the user home directories, e.g. instead of /home/user, you would have /usr/user. The original intention was for the directory to be called ´user´ with the connotation "everything user related".

Since then, the role of /usr has narrowed. In current Unix-like operating systems, /usr still tends to contain user-land programs and data (as opposed to 'system' programs and data), although in many cases the distinction between for instance /usr/bin and /bin isn't perhaps as strong as it used to be.

Perhaps the pronunciation 'user' is more understandable given this background. A backronym some people prefer is 'User System Resources', but 'user' is still more common.

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It does look like that passage has been removed from the FHS, however. –  Michael Kjörling yesterday
 
FWIW, I use many modern HPC systems where the home directories are still in a directory under /usr for some reason. –  tpg2114 22 hours ago
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up vote 20 down vote

The "Unix specific (or system) resources" is a backronym. As already stated, it is just a shorten form of user. See this related question

I tend to pronounce it "user" with experienced people, i.e. those knowing what I'm talking about, and "u-ess-err" with the ones I'm unsure.

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So now I know that if you "u-ess-err" me you are being condescending :) –  Eric Wilson yesterday
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If I know you, that might be the case indeed ;-) otherwise, I just don't take the risk being misunderstood. –  jlliagre yesterday
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up vote 8 down vote

I can personally remember that it's been pronounced "user" since (at least) the early eighties, when portability across OS's (and with it the concept of "unix-specific" as opposed to system-independent resources) was not on anyone's map. "Unix-specific resources" is definitely a later invention, or "folk etymology".

As @Thomas demonstrates, it used to contain more obviously "user" stuff. In older systems, /usr was often a disk mount point, so that system essentials were on the root drive or partition (/), and /usr would contain userland programs and data that can be loaded later in the boot process.

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