UTSL

   [Unix]  On-line  acronym for `Use the Source, Luke' (a pun on Obi-Wan
   Kenobi's  "Use the Force, Luke!" in Star Wars) -- analogous to {RTFS}
   (sense  1),  but more polite. This is a common way of suggesting that
   someone  would  be  better  off reading the source code that supports
   whatever feature is causing confusion, rather than making yet another
   futile  pass through the manuals, or broadcasting questions on Usenet
   that haven't attracted {wizard}s to answer them.

   Once  upon  a time in {elder days}, everyone running Unix had source.
   After  1978,  AT&T's  policy tightened up, so this objurgation was in
   theory  appropriately directed only at associates of some outfit with
   a  Unix  source  license.  In  practice, bootlegs of Unix source code
   (made  precisely  for reference purposes) were so ubiquitous that one
   could utter it at almost anyone on the network without concern.

   Nowadays, free Unix clones have become widely enough distributed that
   anyone  can  read  source  legally.  The  most  widely distributed is
   certainly  Linux, with variants of the NET/2 and 4.4BSD distributions
   running  second.  Cheap  commercial Unixes with source such as BSD/OS
   are accelerating this trend.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {RTFM}]