Subject: Re: lib/4538: netscape/404-freebsd ...
To: Wolfgang Rupprecht <wolfgang@wsrcc.com>
From: Todd Vierling <tv@pobox.com>
List: netbsd-bugs
Date: 11/19/1997 15:05:03
[gnats-bugs removed to keep these from updating the PR any further]

On Wed, 19 Nov 1997, Wolfgang Rupprecht wrote:

: Thanks for pointing out where TFM was located.  A "man -k emul" turned
: up nothing of any value.

D'oh!

: The next question is, is having a separate freebsd directory tree
: really a good thing?  Before the libc-1.3 era, the netbsd and freebsd
: were compatible enough that one didn't have to enlarge ones working
: set by having two copies of all the dynamic libs taking up memory.

Well, NetBSD and FreeBSD have been diverging for a couple years now, and
slowly but surely you will start seeing major incompatibilities in the
binaries.  Basically, yes, you need another set of libraries to ensure
compatibility, since emulated binaries run in a fully "emulated"
environment (including the syscalls of the host OS).  If we were to use
NetBSD shared libraries, they would call NetBSD syscalls which would be
rather incompatible with FreeBSD static binaries.

=====
== Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Business tv@lucent.com)
== Vierling's Axiom: The revolution won't be televised; it will be posted.