2019-08-20 10:08:10 -0400, Chet Ramey: [...] > However, at some point -- I can't find it now -- the GNU documentation > standards recommended using "filename" and "filename expansion," reserving > "pathname" for colon-separated values like $PATH. [...]
I think you're refering to: https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/GNU-Manuals.html#GNU-Manuals GNU> Please do not use the term “pathname” that is used in Unix GNU> documentation; use “file name” (two words) instead. We use the GNU> term “path” only for search paths, which are lists of directory GNU> names. So I guess that should be "file name expansion" That's probably not the right place to argue whether that GNU recommendations makes sense, but note that the FTP RFC (1985 https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc959.txt, so predates POSIX if not the GNU project) defines pathname as pathname Pathname is defined to be the character string which must be input to a file system by a user in order to identify a file. Pathname normally contains device and/or directory names, and file name specification. FTP does not yet specify a standard pathname convention. Each user must follow the file naming conventions of the file systems involved in the transfer. -- Stephane
