RTFS

   [Unix]

   1.  imp.  Abbreviation for `Read The Fucking Source'. Variant form of
   {RTFM},  used when the problem at hand is not necessarily obvious and
   not answerable from the manuals -- or the manuals are not yet written
   and  maybe  never  will be. For even trickier situations, see {RTFB}.
   Unlike  RTFM,  the  anger inherent in RTFS is not usually directed at
   the  person  asking the question, but rather at the people who failed
   to provide adequate documentation.

   2.  imp. `Read The Fucking Standard'; this oath can only be used when
   the problem area (e.g., a language or operating system interface) has
   actually   been  codified  in  a  ratified  standards  document.  The
   existence   of   these   standards  documents  (and  the  technically
   inappropriate   but   politically   mandated  compromises  that  they
   inevitably contain, and the impenetrable {legalese} in which they are
   invariably written, and the unbelievably tedious bureaucratic process
   by which they are produced) can be unnerving to hackers, who are used
   to a certain amount of ambiguity in the specifications of the systems
   they  use. (Hackers feel that such ambiguities are acceptable as long
   as  the  {Right  Thing}  to  do  is obvious to any thinking observer;
   sadly, this casual attitude towards specifications becomes unworkable
   when a system becomes popular in the {Real World}.) Since a hacker is
   likely  to  feel  that  a  standards document is both unnecessary and
   technically  deficient,  the deprecation inherent in this term may be
   directed as much against the standard as against the person who ought
   to read it.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {quote chapter and verse}{RTFM}{UTSL}]