From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Nov 9 15:17:52 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id PAA05292 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Mon, 9 Nov 1998 15:17:52 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ns.mt.sri.com (sri-gw.MT.net [206.127.105.141]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA05283 for ; Mon, 9 Nov 1998 15:17:49 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from nate@mt.sri.com) Received: from mt.sri.com (rocky.mt.sri.com [206.127.76.100]) by ns.mt.sri.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id QAA08850; Mon, 9 Nov 1998 16:17:29 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from nate@rocky.mt.sri.com) Received: by mt.sri.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id QAA08648; Mon, 9 Nov 1998 16:17:28 -0700 Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 16:17:28 -0700 Message-Id: <199811092317.QAA08648@mt.sri.com> From: Nate Williams MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: Steve Kargl Cc: nate@mt.sri.com (Nate Williams), jkh@time.cdrom.com, crossd@cs.rpi.edu, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: linux software installation and uname In-Reply-To: <199811092316.PAA11509@troutmask.apl.washington.edu> References: <199811092004.NAA06080@mt.sri.com> <199811092316.PAA11509@troutmask.apl.washington.edu> X-Mailer: VM 6.34 under 19.16 "Lille" XEmacs Lucid Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > According to Nate Williams: > > > > > I think the correct thing to do here is simply give uname(1) some > > > > > truly switchable behavior, as Steve's second patch did. > > > > > > > > The user then has to be aware of the 'LINUX_EMULATION' environment > > > > variable, which is non-intuitive. The /compat/linux script is a much > > > > better solution since it doesn't require any magic environment > > > > knowledge that must be modified if you run binaries from multiple > > > > 'emulated' OS's. > > > > > > > > > > You're assuming the vendor supplied script will pick up the script > > > in /compat/linux. That, is not the case for the Portland Group > > > script: > > > > You didn't answer the question. What if I have multiple binaries from > > different OS's on the system. The user has to be aware of the 'magic' > > environment variable and have it switch between them. Once we're on > > that path, we're no better off than we are now. > > > > I'm suggesting a change to uname(1) not uname(3). Binaries are > unaffected by setting an ALT_UNAME environmental variable. No, but in order to get the 'correct' behavior, I have to know which OS I need emulated so I can set the environment variable correctly. So, if I want to run SCO's Informix which uses uname (it does, BTW), I have to set 'ALT_UNAME' to "SCO". Then, I want to run StarOffice, so I have set 'ALT_UNAME' to "Linux", then I want to run the JDK, so I have to set 'ALT_UNAME' to "Solaris", or was it the Linux version that I was running? I don't remember if it was the Solaris version, or the Linux version? The point is that it's *NOT* transparent to the users, so the solution isn't any better than the initial problem, but it adds more bloat and more 'magic' solutions that are no better than editing shells scripts. Nate To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message