Subject: Re: options COMPAT_ULTRIX
To: Toru Nishimura <nisimura@itc.aist-nara.ac.jp>
From: Simon Burge <simonb@netbsd.org>
List: port-pmax
Date: 11/22/1999 13:42:18
Toru Nishimura wrote:

> man options(4) tells as; 
> 
>      options COMPAT_ULTRIX
>      On those architectures that support it, this enables binary compatibility
>      with Ultrix applications built for the same architecture.  This currently
>      is limited to the pmax.  The functionality of this option is unknown.
> 
> It's a discouraging statement for ULTRIX lover(s).  'struct emul' is
> one of proud accomplishments of NetBSD.  Can anybody figure out (and
> comfirm) what NetBSD/pmax ULTRIX emulation can do or can't do?

In the past I've run framemaker, but haven't tried Ultrix compat for a
very long time.  Now that hpcmips is here (I want one of these!) it may
be good to move all the Ultrix compat goo to sys/arch/mips.  Should it
be limited to little-endian platforms?  I know that most R4k onwards
should be able to choose endian on a per-process level but don't know if
we have plans to support this or how hard this would be...

> It'd
> also helpful to have 'howtos' to prepare /emul/ultrix environment
> refering to the existense of /usr/share/sample/emul/ultrix/svc.conf.
> How about emul.ultrix(5)?

Umm, compat_ultrix(8) :-)

> The option should automagically enable options EXEC_ECOFF, or
> prossibly other COMPAT_oldbsds.

I tend to have all these on anyway.  Is there a way to do this easily in
config(8)?

Simon.