From owner-freebsd-stable Tue Sep 12 3:59:32 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from smtp2.vnet.net (smtp2.vnet.net [166.82.1.32]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6354837B42C for ; Tue, 12 Sep 2000 03:59:29 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dignus.com (ponds.vnet.net [166.82.177.48]) by smtp2.vnet.net (8.10.1/8.10.1) with ESMTP id e8CAxIM02401; Tue, 12 Sep 2000 06:59:18 -0400 (EDT) Received: from lakes.dignus.com (lakes.dignus.com [10.0.0.3]) by dignus.com (8.9.2/8.8.5) with ESMTP id GAA37523; Tue, 12 Sep 2000 06:59:17 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from rivers@localhost) by lakes.dignus.com (8.9.3/8.6.9) id GAA44483; Tue, 12 Sep 2000 06:59:16 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 06:59:16 -0400 (EDT) From: Thomas David Rivers Message-Id: <200009121059.GAA44483@lakes.dignus.com> To: ohartman@ipamzlx.physik.uni-mainz.de, stephen@math.missouri.edu Subject: Re: Netscape/Linux on FreeBSD an other horrors ... Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <39BD9106.F4F0B0DC@math.missouri.edu> Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Just F.Y.I. I have found that the same Netscape binary running on FreeBSD 4.1 is much more reliable than that binary running on FreeBSD 3.x. I attribute this to the change in how FPU exceptions are handled. That is, Netscape is probably getting floating pt. underflows/overflows which it does not handle. In FreeBSD 3.x, this dumped core, in 4.1 it is ignored. This may "improve" FreeBSD's reliability. [Of course, it raises a question regarding 2.x compatibility; shouldn't a 2.x binary continue to dump core on FPU exceptions, even on a later system?] - Dave Rivers - -- rivers@dignus.com Work: (919) 676-0847 Get your mainframe (370) `C' compiler at http://www.dignus.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message