Michael Sokolov wrote:
>    [A side note.] I know for sure that 4.4BSD doesn't use shared libs, and
> I have always thought that 4.3BSD is no different. However, the total size
> of all system binaries increases by a factor of 3 between 4.3BSD-Tahoe and
> 4.4BSD (dunno about Reno and Net/2). This change is so drastic that I have
> a hard time explaining it without the theory that 4.3BSD did use shared
> libs after all. The toolchain has changed almost completely between 4.3BSD-
> Tahoe and 4.4BSD and the new one hasn't been polished very well because
> CSRG has been disbanded too soon, so it's conceivable that there was
> support for shared libs before but it has been broken by the new toolchain.
> Or maybe this theory is wrong, and the 4.4BSD binaries are simply bloated
> because of the POSIXisation and "renovation" dehancements. Would someone
> knowledgeable please enlighten me? I don't have a copy of 4.3BSD yet to
> check for myself.

I'm *sure* that 4.3BSD doesn't use shared libs.  They just aren't
there.  Furthermore, you can just take a 4.3BSD binary and run it on
NetBSD/vax if you have 4.3BSD compatibility in the kernel.  You don't
need to copy any shared libraries (which is a good thing because there
aren't any :-)  

As for the change in binary sizes, that's surely just bloat.  I don't
know what they did.  Did they get Microsoft to rewrite it for them?  

Unfortunately, NetBSD continues the tradition of bloat.  /bin/cat is 33k
(yes, stripped!).  With gzip -9 it's down to 19k, so that means it
actually contains data and not holes and/or large blocks of zeros.  If
you stop and think about that, it's totally ridiculous and disgusting. 
I know most people just get more RAM and disk space and they don't
complain about it, but I just see it as a very good reason not to
upgrade (and a reason why your 4.3BSD project (if it ever actually)
happens) may be interesting).

>    And what about Ultrix? Does it use shared libs? I know SunOS does.

I've used MIPS Ultrix, and it doesn't.  I don't know about VAX Ultrix...
it probably doesn't.

-- 
|  Boris Gjenero <bgjenero@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>              |
|  Home page:  http://www.undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca/~bgjenero/     |
|  "Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to   |
|  depend greatly on our own point of view." - Obi-Wan Kenobi, ROTJ  |