From: "Theo de Raadt" <deraadt@openbsd.org>
Subject: Re: watch(1) - periodically execute a command and display its output
To: Job Snijders <job@openbsd.org>, tech@openbsd.org
Date: Tue, 20 May 2025 00:43:34 -0600

Jonathan Gray <jsg@jsg.id.au> wrote:

> On Mon, May 19, 2025 at 08:00:37PM +0000, Job Snijders wrote:
> > +.Sh HISTORY
> > +A
> > +.Nm
> > +utility written by Tony Rems first appeared in the procps collection in 1991.
> 
> Perhaps drop the "first appeared" part.
> 
> Likely the comp.sources.unix posting predates procps.
> https://www.tuhs.org/Usenet/comp.sources.unix/1991-March/006041.html
> https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sources.unix/c/rlWJs7IQEqU/m/3VQq17aZ8twJ
> 
> > +This
> > +.Nm
> > +utility was originally named iwatch, a from-scratch rewrite for BSD by IIJ.
> 
> 'for BSD' is not needed, original was for BSD as well

I do not think this history is correct, because it is not the history of _this_
program.

If this pattern of "Oh there was another program vaguely similar which predated
it" was followed tree-wide, it would be a fiasco.

A good example of actual useful truth is in less(1):

HISTORY
     less was first published in 1985 and has been available since
     OpenBSD 2.0.

I think the rest is desperately trying to find a way to thank the ancestors
for everything.