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Is there any explanation/history behind the name of the command dmesg (which prints out some kernel messages)?

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I think it stands for "diagnostic messages", as per the older1 man page (referenced here too). 

dmesg - system diagnostic messages
Dmesg looks in a system buffer for recent kernel diagnostic messages and reproduces them on the standard output

One of the oldest references appears to be a man page revision by Kirk McKusick dating back from 1985.

1: the link doesn't always work - no idea why... I'm attaching a screenshot though you should still be able to access the page via Google's cache.

man page for dmesg(8) listing "dmesg - system diagnostic messages" as the NAME

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  • How to choose of the two the answer that will be accepted?.. I believe it should be the answer with a (verified) reference going to an earlier time in history. 1980 from the other answer is better than 1985 from this one, but it remains without a material source yet.
    – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev
    May 30, 2013 at 14:26
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    That's how I see it: 1. OSX man page stating "The dmesg command appeared in 4.0BSD" doesn't mean OSX devs used the original dmesg description for their OSX man page. 2. Regardless of whether dmesg prints, collects or displays messages, we're still talking about kernel diagnostic messages, no matter how you phrase that. It is about what dmesg outputs, not about the meanings of output (print, display etc). Anyway, it's your question so feel free to accept the answer that you consider the best.
    – don_crissti
    May 30, 2013 at 17:10
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    AFAICT the command first appeared in the 7th Unix release, which gets you back to 1979, no man page, and the source references neither "diagnostic" nor "debug". The v8 man page in your first link is probably the best.
    – mr.spuratic
    Aug 7, 2015 at 15:48
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    The man page synopsis in 3BSD (1979) has: "dmesg - collect system diagnostic messages to form error log"
    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Feb 24, 2018 at 23:55
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I think the dmesg command just stands for display messages. The FreeBSD manpages seem to share this view:

dmesg -- display the system message buffer

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  • I see, tank you! The Linux manpage is not so "explanatory": "dmesg - print or control the kernel ring buffer"
    – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev
    May 20, 2013 at 18:12
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    OS X shares this idea, with both "dmesg -- display the system message buffer" as well as "The dmesg command appeared in 4.0BSD." Unfortunately my Google-fu is failing - seems difficult to find source for 4.0 BSD these days...but that traces back to 1980, so 5 years earlier than referenced in the other answer.
    – Mark Glossop
    May 24, 2013 at 2:05
  • @MarkGlossop Thanks for mentioning these bits of history! How to choose of the two the answer that will be accepted?.. I believe it should be the answer with a (verified) reference going to an earlier time in history. 1980 from your comments is better than 1985 from the other answer, but it remains without a material source yet.
    – imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev
    May 30, 2013 at 14:27
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According to Wikipedia, dmesg is "display message or driver message"

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  • Why was this down-voted?
    – igal
    Nov 12, 2017 at 18:10
  • @igal Related duplicate: What does the 'd' mean in “dmesg”?, which hinted that definition from Wikipedia is purely informational.
    – user125388
    Dec 14, 2017 at 8:07

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