Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/009a/minxdemo.zip/MINIX.INF

Microsoft Windows Help File Content | 1992-01-02 | 46KB | 567 lines

:Original from Andy Tanenbaum <[e-mail]> 9/1990:

1. WHAT IS MINIX 1.5
     MINIX 1.5 is a new version of an operating system that is very similar to
UNIX.  MINIX has been written from scratch, and therefore does not contain any
AT&T code--not in the kernel, the compiler, the utilities, or the libraries.
For this reason it can be made available with the complete source code
(on diskette).  It runs on the IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, 386, and most clones.
Versions are also available for the Atari ST, Macintosh, and Amiga.

     This version (1.5) is a major improvement over all previous releases, with
many new features, fewer bugs (hopefully), much better performance, and
proper documentation. The old versions have been in widespread use all over
the world for 3 years.  There are probably tens of thousands of users.


2. MINIX 1.5 FEATURES (IBM, Macintosh, Atari, and Amiga versions)
  - System call compatible with V7 of the UNIX operating system
  - Full multiprogramming (multiple programs can run at once)
  - Kernighan and Ritchie compatible C compiler
  - Shell that is functionally identical to the Bourne shell
  - Five editors (emacs subset, vi clone, ex, ed, and simple screen editor)
  - Over 175 utilities (cat, cp, ed, grep, kermit, ls, make, sort, etc.)
  - Over 200 library procedures (atoi, fork, malloc, read, stdio, etc.)
  - Spelling checker with 40,000 word English dictionary
  - Full source code (in C) supplied on diskettes (OS, utilities, libraries)
  - Easy-to-read manual telling all about MINIX and how to install and use it


3. ADDITIONAL FEATURES
     In addition to the above features, there are other features present in
some (but not all) versions of MINIX 1.5.  Some of these are listed below.

3.1 ADDITIONAL MINIX 1.5 FEATURES (IBM VERSION):
  - Runs in protected mode on 286 and 386
  - Support for extended memory up to 16M on 286 and 386
  - Up to 3 simultaneous users on one machine
  - RS-232 serial line support with terminal emulation, kermit, zmodem, etc.
  - Distributed computing on Ethernet (remote login, etc.)

3.2 ADDITIONAL MINIX 1.5 FEATURES (MACINTOSH VERSION):
  - Up to 3 simultaneous users on one machine
  - RS-232 serial line support with terminal emulation, kermit, zmodem, etc.
  - Runs under Multifinder
  - Includes support for multiple user windows

3.3 ADDITIONAL MINIX 1.5 FEATURES (ATARI ST VERSION)
  - Up to 2 simultaneous users on one machine
  - RS-232 serial line support with terminal emulation, kermit, zmodem, etc.
  - Support for various real time clocks (Mega, BMS, ICD, Supra, Weide)


4. HARDWARE REQUIRED
  - IBM:        PC, XT, AT, PS/2, or 386 that is 100% hardware compatible with
                the IBM line.  A hard disk not technically required, but is
                strongly recommended to take full advantage of the system.  At
                least 512K of RAM is required, as well as a CGA, EGA,
                monochrome, or Hercules video card, or another card that
                emulates one of these.  Both 5.25" and 3.5" diskettes are
                supported, as are printers using the parallel port and modems
                and terminals using the serial port.

  - Macintosh:  Apple Macintosh Plus, SE, SE/30, II, IIcx, or IIx with at
                least 1M of RAM.  An additional 1M of RAM and a hard disk
                is strongly recommended.  MINIX has been tested primarily
                with version 6.0 and latter of the Apple system software.
                Problems may conceivably arise with earlier versions. Any
                hard disk or display that is supported by the normal Macintosh
                OS is also supported by MINIX.

  - Atari:      Atari ST or Mega ST with at least 1M of RAM.  Although the
                system will boot with only 512K, you will be very restricted
                in what you can do.  A 720K diskette drive is required to
                install the software.  The older 360K diskette drives are
                supported, but are not capable of reading the (720K)
                distribution disks. A hard disk is supported, but is optional.
                Some of the Supra hard disks are not Atari compatible, which
                can cause problems.  A fix is available from the MINIX Centre.

  - Amiga:      Commodore Amiga 500 or 2000 with at least 1M of RAM. One  720K
                diskette drive is sufficient.   A hard disk is not required
                (or even supported).  To use a hard disk with the Amiga,
                someone familiar with how this disk works will have to write
                a driver for it.  If this driver is then posted to the net,
                it will be possible to use a hard disk with MINIX on the Amiga.


5. PARTIAL LIST OF UTILITIES INCLUDED IN MINIX 1.5
  animals ar ascii at atrun backup badblocks banner basename bawk btoa cal cat
  cdiff cgrep chgrp chip chmem chmod chown clr cmp comm compress cp cpdir
  crc cron ctags cut date dd de df dhrystone diff diskcheck dosdir dosread
  doswrite du echo ed elle ex expand expr factor fgrep file find fold fortune
  fsck gather getlf getty grep gres head ic id ifdef indent inodes kill last
  leave ln login look lpr ls m4 machine mail make man mined mkdir mkfs mknod
  modem more mount mref mv nm nroff od passwd paste patch pr prep pretty
  printenv printroot ps pwd readall readfs recover ref rev rm rmdir roff rz
  sed shar size sleep sort spell split strings strip stty su sum sync sz tail
  tar tee term termcap test time touch tr traverse treecmp true tset tsort ttt
  umount unexpand uniq unshar update users uud uue vi vol wc whatsnew whereis
  which who whoami width write


6. PARTIAL LIST OF LIBRARY FUNCTIONS INCLUDED IN MINIX 1.5
  abort abs access alarm atoi atol bcmp bcopy chmod chown chroot
  ctermid ctime ctype curses cuserid doprintf dup dup2 fgetc fgets fopen
  fork fpathconf fprintf fputc fputs fread freopen fseek fstat ftell
  fwrite getcwd getdents getegid getenv geteuid getgid getutil gtty index
  ioctl isatty kill link lock lrand lsearch lseek malloc memccpy
  memchr memcmp memcpy memmove memset message mkdir mkfifo mknod mktemp
  nlist open opendir pathconf pause peekpoke perror rand read readdir
  regexp regsub rename setbuf setgid setjmp setuid signal sleep sprintf
  stat strerror strlen strncat strncmp strncpy strpbrk strrchr strspn
  system telldir termcap time times tmpnam ttyname umask umount


7. CONTENTS OF MINIX 1.5 REFERENCE MANUAL
  Chap.  1 INTRODUCTION
  Chap.  2 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE IBM PC, XT, AT, 386, AND PS/2
  Chap.  3 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE ATARI S
  Chap.  4 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE COMMODORE AMIGA
  Chap.  5 INSTALLING MINIX ON THE APPLE MACINTOSH
  Chap.  6 USING MINIX
  Chap.  7 RECOMPILING MINIX
  Chap.  8 MANUAL PAGES
  Chap.  9 EXTENDED MAN PAGES
  Chap. 10 SYSTEM CALLS
  Chap. 11 NETWORKING
  App.   A MINIX SOURCE CODE LISTING
  App.   B CROSS REFERENCE MAP


8. MINIX BOOK
     The author of MINIX, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, has written a book describing
how operating systems in general and MINIX in particular work internally.
The book describes an earlier version (and includes a source listing), but
it is still useful for understanding how MINIX works inside, even if some
details are now different.  The bibliographic information is:

     Title:      Operating Systems: Design and Implementation
     Author:     Andrew S. Tanenbaum
     Publisher:  Prentice-Hall
     ISBN:       0-13-637406-9

Paperback versions are also available in English (outside North America only),
French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese.  The books can be ordered from any
bookstore.


9. HOW TO ORDER MINIX 1.5
     MINIX 1.5 is being sold by Prentice-Hall.  The product numbers and prices
are as follows:

  - MINIX 1.5 for the IBM: 5 1/4"   (0-13-585076-2)  $169
  - MINIX 1.5 for the IBM: 3 1/2"   (0-13-585068-1)  $169
  - MINIX 1.5 for the Amiga         (0-13-585043-6)  $169
  - MINIX 1.5 for the Atari         (0-13-585035-5)  $169
  - MINIX 1.5 for the Macintosh     (0-13-585050-9)  $169 (available Oct. 1)

Sales tax and shipping are extra; Prices are slightly higher outside the U.S.

All versions include the executable binaries, a detailed manual, the complete
source code (on diskettes), and an attractively typeset, cross-referenced
listing of the operating system code.

     P-H is making a big effort to get software stores to keep MINIX in stock.
The easiest way to order it is to go to a software store and ask them for
it.  If they don't stock it, they can always order it.  Alternatively, you
can order directly by email, FAX, phone, or mail from Prentice-Hall as follows.

In North America and the Far East
  To order by email:    [e-mail]
  To order by FAX:      [phone]
  To order by phone:    [phone]  or  [phone]
  To order by mail:     Microservice Customer Service
                        Simon & Schuster
                        200 Old Tappan Road
                        Old Tappan, NJ 07675


In UK/Europe
  To order by email:    [e-mail]
  To order by FAX:      [phone] (US number)
  To order by phone:    [phone] (UK number)
  To order by mail:     Order Dept.
                        Prentice-Hall International
                        66 Wood Lane End
                        Hemel Hempstead
                        Herts. HP2 4RG ENGLAND


For email and FAX orders, please include the product name and number, your
name and address, and your MasterCard or VISA card number and expiration date.
If you wish delivery by Federal Express (costs extra), please indicate so.

MINIX can also be ordered from the following addresses:

In England:     The MINIX Center
                Forncett End
                Norwich
                Norfolk NR16 1HT England
                0953-89345

In Germany:     Steve Steinkrauss
                Feldtorweg 24
                D3406 Bovenden 1
                Germany

In the Benelux: Fred van Kempen
                Postbus 184
                2100 AD Heemstede
                Holland
                Tel: [phone]
                FAX: [phone]

In Scandinavia: Frank O'Donell
                P.O. Box 88
                1371 Asker
                Norway

In Spain and    Deborah Worth
   Portugal:    Appartado Numero 50672
                Madrid
                Spain

In Italy:       Jim Blaho
                Piazza Santo Spirito 17
                50125 Florence
                Italy

In Greece:      Vassilis Zahos
                Kritonos 5-7
                GR 11634 Athens
                Greece

In Turkey:      Atilla Gullu
                Milli Mudafaa Cad 14/7
                Kizilay Ankara
                Turkey


     If you have previously purchased MINIX from Prentice-Hall, you can get
a discount of $60, but only if you order by mail and include the label from
the original PH boot disk (or the entire disk) with your letter.  Not valid for
email, phone or FAX orders since you must enclose the original boot disk label
(not a photocopy).  Mail orders can be by credit card or check for $169.  You
will be billed for tax and shipping.


10. LEGAL STATUS OF MINIX
     Although MINIX is supplied with the complete source code, it is
copyrighted software.  It is not public domain.  It is also not like GNU.
However, the copyright owner, Prentice-Hall has granted permission to bona
fide universities to copy the software for use in courses and in university
research projects.  It is also permitted for MINIX owners to change the
software to suit their needs and to distribute diff listings containing
their changes freely.  The shrink-wrap license that comes with MINIX states
that you may legally make two backup copies of the software.  Prentice-Hall
is being much less strict than other software vendors.  Please do not abuse
this.  Companies that wish to embed MINIX in commercial systems or sell
MINIX-based products should call [phone] to discuss licensing terms.


11. NEWS ABOUT MINIX
     Since its introduction in January 1987, there has been a large an
active USENET newsgroup about MINIX, comp.os.minix.  It currently has
about 25,000 members.  Over 12,000 messages have been posted to this
group so far.  These messages have contained questions, bug reports,
bug fixes, new software, and diff listings to allow current users to
update to new releases for free.  It is the intention to continue this
policy into the indefinite future.  MINIX users on Bitnet can be put on
a mailing list by sending mail to: [e-mail].  Various
archives store newsgroup traffic for newcomers to the newsgroup.


12. FUTURE PLANS
     The major current project is bringing MINIX into conformance with
the IEEE POSIX P1003.1 and P1003.2 standards.  This will (hopefully)
occur with V2.0, perhaps in 1992.  V2.0 will also be provided with an
ANSI C compiler.  Various people are currently working on 32-bit versions
of MINIX for the 386, and numerous other projects.  To keep up, subscribe
to the comp.os.minix newsgroup.


13. WHERE CAN I GET PAST POSTINGS AND PROGRAMS?
     Many sites keep archives of MINIX-related material, ranging from
archives of articles posted to more organized repositories of programs posted
to the net.  The complete MINIX distribution is NOT (repeat NOT) available
from any online archive.  This is not permitted.  Only the newsgroup traffic is
stored there.

List Archives:

     bugs.nosc.mil                   Current
     louie.udel.edu                  July '87 - Dec '89 (?)
     vm1.nodak.edu                   Current year

Formal Archives (MINIX sources):

     aerospace.aero.org
     atari.archive.umich.edu
     ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au
     doc.ic.ac.uk
     dsrgsun.ces.cwru.edu
     en.ecn.purdue.edu
     funet.fi
     hobbes.cs.umd.edu
     hub.cs.jmu.edu
     The Mars Hotel BBS
     NL-MUG
     plains.nodak.edu
     sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au

13.1.  File Transfer on the Internet
     If you are on the Internet, you can get files from many places with the
file  transfer  protocol  ("FTP").  When connecting to the host system, use
the user-name "anonymous" and any password.  Most systems will ask for your
"ident"  as a password.  It is considered good etiquette to use either your
login name or mail address when asked.  Once connected, look for a "README"
file which should give further information about the archive.

     Consult your local documentation on the use of your FTP application
program (generally called "ftp").  Please be nice to the FTP sites by
restricting your use to non-business hours.

The following sites provide Anonymous FTP

aerospace.aero.org       :130.221.192.10:

atari.archive.umich.edu    :141.211.164.8:   directory   pub/atari/Minix and
     pub/atari/gnustuff/minix
     ST upgrade kits, ST programs (GNU tools)
     This site has a mail server, [e-mail]

bugs.nosc.mil    :128.49.16.1: directory pub/MINIX
     comp.os.minix archives, PC, ST upgrade kits, MINIX-PC programs

ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au :131.236.1.2:
     Email addresses of comp.os.minix posters, clam, etc.

dsrgsun.ces.cwru.edu     :129.22.16.2: directory pub/minix
     MINIX-ST programs (many GNU tools)

en.ecn.purdue.edu        :128.46.129.59:
     UUCP, 8088 Floading Point

funet.fi         :128.214.1.1:

hobbes.cs.umd.edu        :128.8.128.41: directory pub/minix
     copies of oz-utils: MINIX-PC

hub.cs.jmu.edu   :134.126.20.10: directory pub/minix
     MINIX-PC hd-boot package

louie.udel.edu   :128.175.1.3, 128.175.2.33: directory info-minix
     comp.os.minix archives (July '87 - Dec '89)

plains.nodak.edu         :134.129.111.64: directory pub/MINIX
     PC, ST upgrade kits, MINIX-PC & ST programs
     also has a mail server, [e-mail].

sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au       :129.127.40.3: directory pub/minix
     PC upgrade kits, MINIX-PC programs (oz-utils)

vm1.nodak.edu    :134.129.111.1: directory minix-l
     this site has a mail server, [e-mail]
     comp.os.minix archives (current and past year)

13.2. Mail Servers
   Some archive sites provide access to their archives with a server program
that responds to commands mailed to it.

13.2.1.  doc.ic.ac.uk
     An archive of the worthwhile postings from the comp.os.minix newsgroup is
available from uk.ac.ic.doc either via mail or by GUEST niftp.  For details
about how to access this service send a mail message with NO Subject: field
to:

     [e-mail]

and a message body of:

     request catalogue
     topic minix
     request end

This will mail you back details of the various ways to obtain the files.
This service is only available inside the UK. We have no funds to send
such mail internationally.

This archive service is run by Lee McLoughlin.
Janet: [e-mail], [e-mail]
DARPA: lmjm%uk.ac.ic.doc@ucl-cs
Uucp:  [e-mail], ukc!icdoc!lmjm


13.2.2.  NL-MUG
     This archive is temporarily unavailable.

13.2.3.  plains.nodak.edu
     An archive of MINIX upgrades and other interesting files are kept in a
manually-maintained archive on Plains.NoDak.edu :134.129.111.64:.

     For those not fortunate enough to be on the Internet itself, we run the
Clarkson server to process mail requests. This is an extremely versatile
program, that allows various encoding formats (btoa, uuencode), compression
(compress, arc, zoo) and splitting of large files. The server has been
customized to send HELP and Index files at any time, and all other files
between 23:00 and 08:00 local time. If you submit a request that contains
*any* file that is not a Help or Index file, the entire request is queued
until late night (currently 23:00 local time, but that may be moved to
earlier hours of the morning if it proves to be a large load on the system).

The addresses for the server are:
     [e-mail]
     {umn-cs, ogicse, uunet}!plains!archive-server (UUCP)
     fileserv@plains (Bitnet)

Note to Bitnet people: this server is not 'logged on' to the machine, so
you cannot send it interactive messages. The 'fileserv' alias was added
for those of you who do not run the Croswell mailer, but you must still use
something that is detectable as mail (such as a NOTE). Bitnet files will
drop into our bit bucket, unprocessed, since there is no real user by either
of these names.

     To obtain a list of the files, the INDEX command is used:

     index : <directory> :

where <directory> is a directory under our ~ftp/pub login(empty for the
main directory).  There are several other directories of programs for
microcomputers, current volumes for comp.sources.* and some of the Free
Software Foundation's products.

     The SEND command is used for having files sent to you, such as in:

     send MINIX/doc/Info_Sheet

That file is a copy of the monthly "MINIX Information Sheet" posting.  The
MINIX Compatibility Report is available in the file "MINIX/doc/Compatibility".
     There are many more options for having your files compressed (note: most
files in these directories already have been compressed with 13-bit
compression), uuencoded, split, and so on. To obtain more information on
the server, send the command:

     help

and you will be enlightened. The server accepts commands in mixed case, but
all directory/file names are case significant (just like MINIX).

This archive is maintained by Glen Overby, <[e-mail]>, at
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND USA (46 52 N / 96 48 W city)

13.2.4.  vm1.nodak.edu
     North Dakota State University is the host site for distribution of the
info-minix mailing list (also known as minix-l), which is bidirectionally
gatewayed to the Usenet group Comp.os.minix. We maintain archives of all
list traffic from within the past year or so (depending on space availability).
Archives are available via Anonymous FTP on the Internet, and  LIST-SERV
file requests from other networks.

Our server is:
     Internet: [e-mail] :134.129.111.1:
     Bitnet:   listserv@ndsuvm1
     UUCP:     psuvax1!ndsuvm1.bitnet!listserv
               uunet!plains!vm1.nodak.edu!listserv

If you do not have Internet access, you may request files be sent to you by
our LISTSERV file server by sending it commands in the body of a mail message.

To obtain a list of the files, the INDEX command is used:

     INDEX MINIX-L


The GET command will instruct LISTSERV to send you a file, such as:

     get minix-l LOG9005A minix-l

to get the file "MINIX-L LOG9005A" from the directory "MINIX-L".  The
filename tells what year, month, and week it is from:

     MINIX-L LOGyymmw

where "yy" is the year, "mm" is the numeric month and "w" is an  alphabetic
character from A to E indicating what week of the month.  Several months of
log files are kept on-line, the number depending on disk space  availability.

     Due to the 80-character per line (punched card) limit on Bitnet mail, many
of the files will be shipped using an encoding scheme that allows logical
lines to be split up into many physical lines. On Bitnet, this is normally
the IBM "DISK DUMP" or "NETDATA" format, and for ther networks it is "List-
serv Punch".

     Listserv Punch was designed by Listserv's author and is designed to send
files with lines longer than 80 characters thru the Bitnet gateways. A
special program to decode the file once it has arrived at your site.
Information on obtaining a program to decode listserv punch format is sent
with each encoded file.

     If you would rather have a file sent to you uuencoded, you may specify
that in your GET command:

             get minix info minix f=uuencode

please note that the file, once decoded, will be in EBCDIC!

SEARCHING THE MAILING LIST LOGS WITH LISTSERV

     If you are looking for a specific article, or set of articles, you can
perform  searches  on this directory using the Database functions of Listserv.
For example, to obtain a "Subject" index of the MINIX-L archives, send the
listserv a file or mail with the following "job" in the message body:

     //      JOB  Echo=No
     Database Search DD=Rules
     //Rules DD   *
     search * in minix-l since 90/04/01
     index

and you will be sent a file containing all of the 'Subject:' lines sent to
the mailing list since December 1, 1989. If you wish to request one or
more items, replace the 'index' line in the above job with "print :ref-num:",
where "refnum" is the reference number from the index listing.  Documentation
on this and other database functions is  available  by  sending the command
"INFO DATABASE" to the listserv.

     To obtain more information on the listserv, send the command:
     INFO ?

and you will be enlightened with a list of available documentation on using
LISTSERV.

     This archive is automatically maintained by the list server. If you have
questions, contact Glen Overby, <[e-mail]>, at North Dakota
State University, Fargo, ND USA (46 52 N / 96 48 W city)

13.3.  Publicly accessable Bulletin Boards
     For people without a network connection, there is a PC-based Electronic
Bulletin  Board  System  (BBS)  that  has  carried  the traffic of Usenet's
Comp.os.minix steadily since August, 1987 as well as a formal MINIX archive.

     The BBS is not a true gateway to Usenet, like some Fidonet nodes are;
rather  it is a "delivery service" whereby new comp.os.minix articles are
gathered daily and posted as messages on the BBS. Long articles are
automatically ARC'ed and posted to the file area for downloading. Raw traffic
is kept for about 2 months.

     Once a month the articles of lasting interest from the previous month are
saved into several ARC files, all less than 100K, to make downloading
easier. For any given month, the index of articles is in MNXyymmA.ARC, and
the actual articles start in MNXyymmB.ARC. You can just download the index,
then download the ARC files that contain articles of interest to  you.
A complete index is always in MNXINDEX.ARC.

Call:
     The Mars Hotel BBS, [phone] (PC-Pursuitable)
     300,1200,2400 baud, 8,n,1.

     No registration required, no donations accepted.
     Everyone gets 60 minutes/day.
     No upload/download ratios (but don't be a jerk!)

Spread the word to those without net access.

This BBS is run by James da Silva.
UUCP:   uunet!mimsy!jds Internet: [e-mail]