THE VIDEO SHELF · unix history and pipes
AT&T Archives: The UNIX Operating System
A 1982 Bell Labs film hosted by Victor Vyssotsky on the origins and design philosophy of the UNIX operating system, with appearances by Kernighan, Thompson and Ritchie. It shows pipes, filters and a shell one-liner spell checker being built.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN points people to it as the clearest primary-source explanation of Unix pipes and the small-tools philosophy, straight from the creators.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- AT&T Tech Channel
- Topic
- unix history and pipes
- Format
- documentary
- Level
- intro
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 10
- HN mentions in dataset
- 20
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2013–2026
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
Nice guide. cd ~ command goes to home directory though, not root. I wish someone showed me the UNIX operating system introduction by Kernighan et al before anything else. It can be found in AT&T arhives: [VIDEO]
krmbzds on Hacker News · 2018-07
In The Shell Introduction I Wish I Had> Recently I discovered the AT&T history channel, with this gem: [VIDEO] I go back to this video every once in a while ever since I discovered it a few years ago. I just think it is super relaxing. When I first watched it, I …
gftsantana on Hacker News · 2019-10
In Unix: A History and a Memoir, by Brian KernighanThis gets shared a ton, but the old Bell Labs video from 4:56 to 10:52 is still the best way I have seen pipes explained: [VIDEO]
GNOMES on Hacker News · 2026-01
In The Unix Pipe Card Game
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.