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When writing an instruction about connecting to a computer using ssh, telnet, etc., I'm not sure what spacing to use in this familiar spoken phrase:

  • "Log in to host.com"
  • "Log into host.com"
  • "Login to host.com"

Maybe this is entirely subjective or the realm of industry jargon, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to ask. Any insight?

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Using "ssh" or "telnet" as a verb isn't uncommon either. I hear plenty of "I can ssh into my workstation from my home computer." (Not that this addresses the "Log in or login?" question.) – res Nov 19 '10 at 20:53
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notaverb.com/login. 'Nuff said. – Marthaª Nov 19 '10 at 21:56
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I would write “Log in to host.com.”

I think that “login” is a noun (as in “login screen”). I would find the words “loginned” and “loginning” awkward.

As for “Log in to host.com” versus “Log into host.com,” I would use the former because I think that “log in” is a fixed phrase. Martha’s answer to another question is also related.

Added: The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) lists 65 occurrences of “log in to” and 58 occurrences of “log into,” both including inflected forms and excluding the Spoken section. (The queries used are [log].[v*] in to and [log].[v*] into.) Since “log in to” is also used in context like “log in to download it,” the actual number of occurrences of “log in to [host]” is slightly smaller than 65. In any case, it suggests that the phrase “log into” is also used commonly, although I am not sure how good it is to use COCA to compare technical terms.

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up vote 8 down vote

The verb is log in.

Log in to host.com

From the Wikipedia page for Login:

Spelling confusion

The verbs are two words: log in and log out, whereas the nouns are login and logout (often used like adjectives in compound nouns).

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John, that's because "log in" is the phrasal verb with the intended meaning (See dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/log-in-on). "To" in this case is the preposition to connect with the word "host". – Bruno Rothgiesser Nov 19 '10 at 19:34
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In a sentence like Log in as "admin", you'd never write "*inas" as one word. Same thing with "in" and "to" when they just happen to end up next to each other in a sentence. – Marthaª Nov 19 '10 at 21:53
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@Martha: That sounds like a logical explanation, but does not necessarily reflect the reality. It does not explain why some people never write “log inas Administrator” but still write “log into home.com.” I think that the difference is simple: “inas” is not used in any context, but the word “into” exists. – Tsuyoshi Ito Nov 20 '10 at 12:02
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@Tsuyoshi Ito, perhaps I wasn't completely clear, but my point is that using "into" in such a case is just as incorrect as using "inas" would be. The fact that people make mistakes doesn't change this. – Marthaª Nov 20 '10 at 16:26
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@Martha: That sounds like a pretty prescriptive attitude towards the language. – Tsuyoshi Ito Nov 20 '10 at 16:46
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