[ih] What is the origin of the root account?

[paul at redbarn.org (Paul Vixie)]

Bill Ricker wrote:
>
> Etymologically, i have always //suspected// that the userid=0 account
> is called username='root' because that's the special userid that owns
> the root directory '/' also called 'Root', which indeed is the root of
> the singular file-system. Unix was peculiar in having *all* files in a
> single-rooted tree, not a forest of separate directory trees named by
> devices.

i've always harbored the same suspicion, which is what made it funny
when it became inconvenient to have "/" be the root user's home
directory (too much trash was accumulating) thus causing that trash to
move to (wait for it) "/root".

paul