Chris G Demetriou writes:
> > Actually, they are _not_ sufficient: I can't dump from the alpha and
> > restore on the i386 with this code.  I just can't figure out why.  :-(
> 
> So, does that normally work?  I.e. can you normally take dump images
> from one little-endian box and restore them on another little-endian
> box?  (you can't do this between endiannesses, so i could believe that
> you couldn't do it between different machines of the same endianness.)
> 
> "Check the structure offsets and stuff."

We ported Net/2 dump to ULTRIX (little endian MIPS), and Net/2 restore
to ULTRIX and Solaris/SPARC (big endian SPARC), and it works ok
restoring dumps made with the native ULTRIX dump, and our ported dump.

However, trying to port NetBSD's restore so that the Solaris box could
read ULTRIX dumps wasn't fully successful, and since the version we
had worked anyway, I didn't bother trying to fix it - restore is
currently too dependant upon the format of the filesystem that was
dumped (which it shouldn't be).

Now, I know a lot of people will say "dump is FS dependant, so too
bad". Even so, the ability to restore dumps made on one architecture
to another of the same vintage (e.g, NetBSD/* on NetBSD/*) is a
worthwhile goal, and if we can read most *BSD (and older BSD) dumps,
then even better (although the latter could be painful on 64 bit
architectures as older dumps may have made lots of assuptions).

If we could get dump and restore working, and if restore could be made
more portable, that would be a big long-term win. I'm willing to assist
in this as a ``project'' or whatever.


--
Luke Mewburn                            UNIX Technical Support
<lukem@telstra.com.au>                CPR Project, ITG, Telstra.
Phone: +61 3 9634 2112			 (for 3 more days...)

    I'm changing employers (to connect.com.au) at the start
    of December 1996. This mail address should forward anyway.