Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 12:35:05 -0500 (EST) From: Thomas David Rivers <rivers@dignus.com> To: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, sgk@troutmask.apl.washington.edu Subject: Re: linux software installation and uname Message-ID: <199811091735.MAA23943@lakes.dignus.com> In-Reply-To: <199811091712.JAA10172@troutmask.apl.washington.edu>
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> > Ladies and Gents, > > I've recently installed the Portland Groups's Fortran 90 > for Linux on my system (it works!). However, during the > installation from the cdrom, a install script is executed > that contains a test involving "uname -s" to ensure the > installation is on a system running Linux. Of course, > "uname -s" on a FreeBSD system returns "FreeBSD" instead > of the expected "Linux". Thus, I had to alter uname(1) > to report "Linux" to install the software. With the > expected availability of more commericial software for Linux, > it seems necessary to provide uname(1) the capability to > report "Linux" in place of "FreeBSD". > > -- > Steve > Steve - We've been here before. The consensus - after considerable debate - was to not make such a change. The problem is that several automated processes - particularly WEB related - use uname to determine what kind of machines they are running on. If we return "Linux" - then we inflate the linux numbers at the cost of our own. In my particular instance, I was able to persuade the vendor that it was artificially limiting its customer base. And thus, the uname check was changed to accept either "FreeBSD" or "Linux". Perhaps you could do the same with the Lahey people. For the previous debate; I refer you to the mail archives. - Dave Rivers - To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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