What does rc, in bashrc, nanorc stand for?

Question

Is there any long-form, if at all? Or is it just a tradition from the 80's?

Answer 1

I've heard

• run commands
• resource control
• run control
• runtime configuration

Personally, I'd go with run control, because ESR says so.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch10s03.html

His footnote says:

 The ‘rc’ suffix goes back to Unix's grandparent, CTSS.
 It had a command-script feature called "runcom". Early
 Unixes used ‘rc’ for the name of the operating system's
 boot script, as a tribute to CTSS runcom.

Wikipedia chooses "run commands" as the default long-form, but admits that context should determine word choice.

 While not historically precise, rc may also be pronou-
 nced as "run control", because an rc file controls how
 a program runs. For instance, the editor Vim looks for
 and reads the contents of the .vimrc file to determine
 its initial configuration. The most sensible pronunci-
 ation depends on the function of the file: to start
 something up, or to control how something starts up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_Commands

Answer 2

According to this source -- http://kb.iu.edu/data/abdr.html -- it means "run commands"