Pipeline, May/June 1996, vol.7, no.3
Copyright © 1996 Silicon Graphics
This article discusses topics of interest to a system or network administrator, or anyone that is responsible for maintaining an IRIS system.
This article contains several items that system and network administrators should be aware of before upgrading to IRIX 6.2. It is strongly suggested that this article be read before upgrading to IRIX 6.2.
Customers who are primarily developers or end users should refer to the articles "IRIX 6.2 for Developers" and "IRIX 6.2 for End Users" on pages 13 and 17 in this issue of Pipeline.
Customers with software support contracts should receive copies of IRIX 6.2 starting in late May or early June.
Compatibility with IRIX 5.3
Nearly all ELF binaries built on IRIX 5.x can run under IRIX 6.2. Exceptions include programs that access /proc or /debug, use kernel data structures, rely on old defects, or use static libraries instead of shared libraries. It may be necessary to recode or recompile some programs to take advantage of IRIX 6.2 enhancements.
Compatibility with IRIX 6.1
In general, user code (i.e., applications) is compatible between IRIX 6.1 and IRIX 6.2. However, device drivers and any other programs that access the hardware directly must be recompiled.
Security
Like IRIX 5.3 and IRIX 6.1, IRIX 6.2 incorporates technology originally developed for Trusted IRIX/B for identification, authentication, and auditing. These features are designed to meet the U.S. Department of Defense "Orange Book" C2 level of trust. An optional Trusted IRIX/B 6.2 layered product will be available in the near future for customers who require a C2 or B1 level of trust.
Obsolete Software and Hardware
COFF No Longer Supported
COFF (Common Object File Format) is the binary object format of programs compiled under IRIX 4.0.x and earlier, or programs compiled using the irix4_dev compatibility subsystem in IRIX 5.x.
ELF (Executable and Linking Format) is the binary object format of programs compiled under IRIX 5.x and IRIX 6.x.
IRIX 6.2 does not support compilation, linking or execution of COFF binaries. A script, called coffcheck, can be used to determine if there are any COFF binaries on a system. Coffcheck can be accessed via anonymous FTP from either ftp.sgi.com or sgigate.sgi.com in the directory /support/Pipeline. Coffcheck is also available in the top level directory of the IRIX 6.2 CD-ROM (Part 1 of 2).
In addition, inst(1M) in IRIX 6.2 allows the system administrator the option of running coffcheck before installing IRIX 6.2.
Attempts to execute COFF binaries result in error messages similar to the following:
Cannot execute binary file
<program> - Exec format error
For more information on why support for COFF is being terminated, refer to the article titled "The End of COFF Support" in the January/February 1996 issue of Pipeline, available on-line with InSight(1) if Supportfolio (formerly Support Advantage) is loaded.
Hardware No Longer Supported
IRIX 6.2 does not support the following hardware:
Contact your system support provider for information on upgrade options if the system contains any of the hardware on this list.
Optional Products
Table 1 provides a list of optional products currently available for IRIX 6.2. Customers requiring products not listed in this table should contact their sales representative to determine product availability before upgrading to IRIX 6.2.
Marketing Code Description Version
-----------------------------------------------------------
SC4-4DDN-5.1 DECnet connectivity software 5.1
SC4-4DLT-4.0 4D LAT emulator 4.0
SC4-ANNT-1.1 IRIS Annotator 1.1
SC4-ATMOC3-2.0 IRIS ATM-OC3c 2.0
SC4-C++-6.2 MIPSpro C++ compiler 6.2
SC4-CODE-1.0 Development environment for Java 1.0
SC4-DBA-6.2 Database accelerator for
multi-processor servers 6.2
SC4-DWB-4.1.3 Documenters Workbench 4.1.3
SC4-DPSDEV-2.0.5 Display PostScript development 2.0.5
SC4-F77-6.2 MIPSpro FORTRAN 77 6.2
SC4-F90-6.2 MIPSpro FORTRAN 90 6.2
SC4-GALILEO-6.2 Galileo video 6.2
SC4-IDO-6.2 IRIS development option 6.2
SC4-IL-2.5.1 ImageVision library 2.5.1
SC4-IMPACT-DM-2.0 IMPACT digital media 2.0
SC4-INVENTR-2.1.2 Open Inventor 3D toolkit 2.1.2
SC4-MPFDEV6-2.6 ProDev/Pro multi-processor F77
and F90 2.6
SC4-NFS-6.2 ONC3/NFS 6.2
SC4-OSI-3.0 OSI transport services 3.0
SC4-PAS-6.2 Pascal compiler 6.2
SC4-PDVC++6-2.6 ProDev C++ bundle 2.6
SC4-PDVFTN6-2.6 ProDev FORTRAN bundle 2.6
SC4-PERF-2.0 IRIS Performer 2.0
SC4-PF77-6.2 MIPSpro FORTRAN 77 analyzer 6.2
SC4-PF90-6.2 MIPSpro FORTRAN 90 analyzer 6.2
SC4-PRODEV6-2.6 ProDev/C bundle for C development 2.6
SC4-PROMPF-2.6 Pro MPF module 2.6
SC4-PWRC-6.2 IRIS Power C 6.2
SC4-RAID-2.0 DG Raid 2.0
SC4-RAPP-1.2 RapidApp application developer 1.2
SC4-REACT-3.0 REACTpro real-time 3.0
SC4-SIRIUS-6.2 Sirius video option 6.2
SC4-TR-4.1 IRIS Token Ring 4.1
SC4-TTDEV-1.3 ToolTalk developers option 1.3
SC4-WNDVW-1.2 WindView developers option 1.2
SC4-WS-2.6 ProDev WorkShop programming
environment 2.6
HU-ASO CHALLENGE/Onyx Audio/Serial 6.2
Impressario for Print Servers
Impressario 1.2 is the current version of Impressario for print servers. Unfortunately, Impressario 1.2 contains COFF binaries which prevent it from running on IRIX 6.2. A version of Impressario compatible with IRIX 6.2 (tentatively named Impressario 2.0), is not scheduled to release until a few weeks after IRIX 6.2.
Customers who are considering upgrading systems that function as print servers to IRIX 6.2 should wait until the next version of Impressario becomes available.
In addition, customers that have third party printer drivers containing COFF binaries should contact the vendor for an ELF version of the driver. At this time, the following third party products are known to include COFF binaries:
The Adobe PostScript interpreter in Impressario 2.0 uses a software license (previous versions did not use a license). A license is needed to print to most color printers and plotters as well as HP LaserJet printers. Procuring a license for Impressario 2.0 before upgrading to IRIX 6.2 is strongly suggested.
International Language Support
At this time, there is limited support for languages other than English in IRIX 6.2. Support for languages other than English is expected to be available after IRIX 6.2 releases. For more information, contact your Silicon Graphics sales representative.
IRIX 6.2 Reorganization and Installation Changes
The following sections outline some of the organizational and installation changes in IRIX 6.2.
IRIX 6.2 Product and CD-ROM Reorganization
Many formerly optional software packages are now part of IRIX 6.2 including parts of the Desktop Special Edition (DSE) and IRIXpro. This has caused IRIX to become large enough to require two CD-ROMs. In addition, the products that formerly started with the prefixes eoe1 and eoe2 (as well as several other products) have been combined into one product, eoe. Tables 2 and 3 provide the name of the IRIX 6.2 products, their previous names under IRIX 5.3 and 6.1, whether the product was formerly part of an optional product, and a description of the software contained in the subsystem. Note that where this article differs from the information in the release notes, this article is correct.
The first IRIX 6.2 CD-ROM contains the following products.
IRIX 6.2 IRIX 5.3/6.1 Name Name and Description Former Location ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FDDIXPress 6.2 FDDIXPress Networking interface controller (hardware and software) providing FDDI connectivity ViewKit_eoe 1.4.0 ViewKit_eoe Contains DSOs to support applications written using ViewKit WV_eoe 1.0 new WebViewer contains DSOs to support applications written using VIewKit C++ classes c++_eoe 6.2 c++_eoe Contains DSOs to support applications written in C++ c_eoe 6.2 c_eoe Contains DSOs to support applications written in C cadmin 6.2 cadmin Contains system administration tools for the Indigo Magic Desktop compiler_eoe 6.2 compiler_eoe Contains compiler execution utilities such as rld(1) and base compiler DSOs required to run any IRIX application desktop_base 6.2 desktop_eoe Contains desktop shared libraries, file typing rules and desktop icon libraries for the Indigo Magic Desktop dmedia_eoe 6.2 dmedia_eoe Contains basic system components necessary to support audio, MIDI, and video applications dps_eoe 2.0.5 dps_eoe Provides support for printing or displaying PostScript level 2 documents or images efast 6.2 efast Provides support for the EFast high speed Ethernet processor board (CMC-130) eoe 6.2 eoe1 and eoe2, Contains foundation level parts of other software that requires a subsystems miniroot installation ftn77_eoe 6.2 ftn_eoe Contains DSOs to support applications written in F77 ftn90_eoe 6.2 ftn90_eoe Contains DSOs to support applications written in F90 goldengate 1.0 new Contains DSOs to support applications written using the goldengate data conversion libraries hippi 2.2 hippi (optional, Provides support for the HIPPI HIPPI) high speed parallel processing interface (HIPPI) il_eoe 2.5.1 il_eoe ImageVision contains DSOs to support applications written using the ImageVision Library insight_base 2.3.3 insight The minimum software necessary to allow a server to install InSight books inventor_eoe 2.1.2 inventor_eoe Contains DSOs to support applications written using Inventor 2.1.x isdn_eoe 1.2 eoe2.sw.uucp, Contains support for PPP, eoe2.sw.ppp ISDN and ASI license_eoe 2.1 license_eoe in 6.1, Contains tools to support the netls_eoe in 5.3 installation and management of software licenses using NetLS and FLEXlm media_warehouse 1.1 media_warehouse A graphical user interface to a (optional, DSE) collection of multi-media data objects motif_eoe 6.2 motif_eoe Contains the Motif window manager along with associated configuration files and manual pages performer_eoe 2.0.1 performer_eoe The Performer execution environment supports both IrisGL and OpenGL sgitcl_eoe 1.1 sgitcl Contains support for the Tool (optional, IRIXpro) Command Language (TCL) tooltalk_eoe 1.3 tooltalk_eoe An interprocess message passing facility developed and licensed by SunSoft vino 6.2 vino Provides support for the built- in video hardware on an Indy x_eoe 3.5 x_eoe X11 execution environment, based on X11R6 xpg4 new Provides support for an XPG4 compliant environmentTable 2. Product subsystems on the first IRIX 6.2 CD-ROM The second IRIX 6.2 CD-ROM contains the following subsystems.
IRIX 6.2 IRIX 5.3/6.1 Name Name and Description Former Location ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4Dwm 6.2 4Dwm IRIX Extended Motif Window manager based on mwm InPerson 2.1.1 InPerson InPerson is a networked (optional, DSE) multimedia conferencing tool PeoplePages 1.1 PeoplePages Indigo Magic phonebook that (optional, DSE) stores a list of users with InPerson as well as other information SoftWindows2 2.0 SoftWindows2 SoftWindows2 is an X Window (optional, DSE) application that emulates a 486 PC and includes WIndows 3.11 acrobat 2.1 acrobat Adobe Acrobat Reader 2.1 (optional, DSE) allows users to view, distribute and print documents in Portable Document Format (PDF) annotator 1.1 annotator IRIS Annotator is a multimedia (optional, DSE) application designed for sharing ideas and information about 3D models demos 6.2 eoe2.sw.demos Contains graphics demonstration programs desktop_eoe 6.2 desktop_eoe Contains the Indigo Magic Desktop software desktop_tools 6.2 desktop_tools Contains various desktop tools such as jot(1), mailbox(1), etc. dynaweb 1.0.1 dynaweb DynaWeb is designed to deliver (optional, DSE) searchable on-line InSight books via any Web client fddivis 6.2 fddivis FDDIVisualyzer allows a network administrator to visually examine an FDDI ring imgtools 2.3 imgtools IRIS ImageVision Tools is a set of image generation and manipulation utilities insight 2.3.3 insight The InSight viewer allows access to the SGI on-line document and support libraries insight_gloss 2.3.2 insight_gloss The InSight 2.3.2 Glossary is a list of terms and definitions that are used in the various InSight manuals isdnadmin 1.3 adminmagic Tools for the setup of ISDN and (optional, DSE) configuration of PPP over ISDN mmail 3.2.3 mmail MediaMail 3.2.3 is an electronic mail system that allows a user to send and receive multimedia messages netscape 2.0S netscape Netscape Navigator 2.0S allows (optional, DSE) a user to browse Web documents outbox 1.2 outbox Outbox consists of two (optional, DSE) subsystems, outbox and webserver 1.4.1A). Together these products can configure a system as a Web server print 1.4 print Printing Tools allows a system to use a printer showcase 3.4 showcase An integrated drawing and presentation program sysadmdesktop 6.2 sysadmdesktop Sysadmdesktop is a set of visual system administration tools that can be used in conjunction with Indigo Magic sysmon 1.2.2 sysmon An error reporting system for the Indigo Magic Desktop systour 5.2 systour A showcase presentation that introduces the user to the features and functionality of Indigo Magic vlan232 1.4.2 vlan232 Serial Video Lan control panel and tools provides an interface between SGI systems and Videomedia V-LAN transmitters using RS-232 connections vli 1.5.3 vli GTX/VGX VideoLab software works in conjunction with the (optional) VideoLab hardware to allow a user to view high resolution images on the system from low-resolution formats, capture low-resolution images in real time and view them on the high-resolution workstation monitor webmagic 2.0.1 webmagic WebMagic Author is a WYSIWYG (optional, DSE) HTML Web authoring environment webspace 1.1 webspace WebSpace Navigator allows a user (optional, DSE) to browse 3D scenes on the World Wide Web whatsnew 6.2 whatsnew WhatsNew provides access to a (optional, DSE) wide range of information which helps to user to become familiar with the system xlators_3d 1.1.1 xlators_3d 3D file translators provides (optional, DSE) a set of standalone file to file translatorsTable 3. Product subsystems on the second IRIX 6.2 CD-ROM Installation Tool Changes
Several changes have occurred that affect software installation. This section discusses the major changes. For more information, refer to chapter three of the eoe release notes.
To read the release notes on a graphics terminal before installing the software, use the command:
% /CDROM/CDgrelnotes
To read the release notes on an ASCII terminal, use the command:
% /CDROM/CDrelnotes
This assumes that one of the two IRIX 6.2 CD-ROMs is mounted on the directory /CDROM.
Booting Miniroot from Tape
Booting and installing software from tape is not supported in IRIX 6.2. In some cases, it may still be possible to install from tape, but it is not a tested or supported functionality.
New Start-up Scripts
Inst now provides a start-up script to assist the system administrator in preparing to install IRIX 6.2. The startup script performs a three part check for COFF programs, old kernel files, and large files that may no longer be needed. The system administrator can run (or skip) each part separately. When the script finishes, control is returned to inst so that the system administrator can install IRIX 6.2.
Check for COFF Programs
IRIX 6.2 does not run COFF programs, which were built for IRIX 4.0 and earlier releases. To determine whether any COFF programs exist, the system administrator can choose to run this check to determine if any COFF binaries exist on the system.
Check for Large Files
Because IRIX 6.2 contains a number of new products, it may require more disk space than the current IRIX release. SGI recommends that unnecessary files such as old kernel crash files, program core files, and files in user dumpsters be removed. This script checks for these files and removes them individually, as the system administrator approves each removal.
Check for Old Kernel Files
To insure a successful installation and kernel configuration, it is often advisable to remove old kernel files in the /var/sysgen and /usr/cpu/sysgen directory hierarchies. The third part of the start-up script removes these old files; any modified and custom kernel files are saved.
Documentation Reorganization
The system administration on-line documentation has been reorganized and expanded in IRIX 6.2. In particular, the IRIX Advanced Site and Server Administration Guide has been replaced by a series of guides called IRIX Admin, which covers all of the topics included in the IRIX Advanced Site and Server Administration Guide. The IRIX Admin series includes the following books, available on-line with InSight:
IRIX 6.2 and Industry Standards
POSIX, MIPS ABI, and MIPS API
IRIX 6.2 contains an implementation of POSIX 1003.1b asynchronous I/O that has replaced the previous version of asynchronous I/O in libc. IRIX 6.2 also supports POSIX 1003.1b shared memory objects and POSIX 1003.1b synchronous I/O. In addition, many header files have undergone changes for compliance with POSIX 1003.1b.
IRIX 6.2 provides a substantial subset of the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) described in the System V Interface Definition, Issue 3 (SVID3), the defining document for System V Release 4 (SVR4).
IRIX 6.2 will be the reference platform for the MIPS Application Binary Interface (ABI) 1.2.1 and remains compliant with the MIPS ABI 1.1.
IRIX 6.2 has received the X/Open Base95 Profile branding from the X/Open Company, Ltd.
SGI provides most of the APIs defined in the X/Open "Single UNIX Specification" (XPG4), formerly known as SPEC 1170. Note that support for XPG4 is provided in a non-default subsystem called xpg4.eoe.sw. It is strongly suggested that sites interested in running in an XPG4 compliant environment read the xpg4 release notes before installing this subsystem.
For more information on POSIX and XPG4 refer to chapter three of the eoe release notes. For more information on the MIPS API and ABI, refer to chapter three of the dev release notes as well as the MIPSpro 64-bit Porting and Transition Guide, and MIPSpro N32 ABI Guide, both of which are available on-line with InSight.
X11R6 and OSF/Motif 1.2.4
Under IRIX 6.2, the X server has been upgraded to X11R6. The clients and libraries were X11R6 compliant in IRIX 5.3 and IRIX 6.0.x. IRIX IM, SGI's enhanced version of OSF Motif has been upgraded to OSF Motif 1.2.4. Both the X11R6 and the IRIX IM libraries have been updated to support 32-bit and 64-bit addressing.
Enhancements and New Features
The following sections provide details about selected enhancements and features in IRIX 6.2. Additional information about these and other features can be found in the manual pages referenced and in the appropriate release notes.
For a list of the release notes available, run the following command in an IRIX shell for each of the two IRIX 6.2 CD-ROMs:
% /CDROM/CDrelnotes
New Hardware Support
IRIX 6.2 adds support for InfiniteReality graphics and the new R10000 MIPS CPU.
InfiniteReality Graphics
InfiniteReality (IR) is the newest high-end graphics product from SGI. InfiniteReality graphics are available on Onyx InfiniteReality, Onyx InfiniteReality 10000 and POWER CHALLENGE GR systems. Existing systems with Reality Engine graphics can be upgraded to InfiniteReality (SGI field personnel only). Support for InfiniteReality graphics is provided in IRIX 6.2. IRIX 6.2 also provides many new OpenGL and GLX extensions which add features specifically designed for InfiniteReality graphics. Refer to the article titled "IRIX 6.2 for Developers" on page 13 of this issue of Pipeline and the manual pages for glIntro(3g) and glXIntro(3g) for more information on these extensions.
MIPS R10000 CPU
The new MIPS R10000 CPU (IP25) is now available on the POWER CHALLENGE 10000, POWER Onyx 1000, and Onyx InfiniteReality 10000. Support for the MIPS R10000 CPU is provided in IRIX 6.2.
Systems with the MIPS R10000 CPU provide performance improvement over systems with R4x00 and R8000 CPUs in both integer and floating point applications, even without recompilation of the application under IRIX 6.2.
On-line Registration
On-line registration is a new netscape(1) based tool in IRIX 6.2 that the primary user or system administrator can use to provide SGI:
This information allows SGI to improve customer service and has the potential to influence product quality and future product releases.
When a user first logs in, netscape is started and displays a "Welcome" page. On-line registration is available by clicking on the button labeled "Register and Win!". Instructions are provided at each step, and the whole procedure takes only a few minutes. At the end, the user can preview the registration information before sending it on to SGI.
If the system is connected to the Internet, it is possible to send an encrypted e-mail with the registration information to SGI. If the system has access to a PostScript printer, the registration information can be printed and faxed or mailed to the local SGI office. If neither of these options are available, contact information for the local office is displayed so that a form can be obtained.
If the "Welcome" page has already been dismissed, it is possible to access it by executing the following command:
% netscape http://localhost:8778/WhatsNew/whatsnew.cgi
If the system is a server without graphics, it is possible to remotely display the "Welcome" page to a graphics system on the local network using the following commands:
% rlogin <user>@<server_system>
% setenv DISPLAY <system_with_graphics>:0
% netscape http://localhost:8778/WhatsNew/whatsnew.cgi
Once the on-line registration has been completed, the "Register and Win!" button is disabled and registration is complete. The system then prompts the user to install eight screen savers as a thank you gift from SGI.
PPP Enhancements
IRIX 6.2 incorporates two new enhancements previously available via patch 517 for IRIX 5.3; Internet Engineering Task Force Multilink Protocol (IETF MP) and Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP).
The IETF Multilink Protocol allows for greater implementation of multi-connection serial line groupings in a PPP session between an SGI system and a remote host. The IRIX PPP implementation allows any combination of modems, ISDN, or higher speed serial links into a single MP bundle using either RFC 1717 MP or BF&I multi-link. IETF MP can be disabled via the -mp parameter in the file /etc/ppp.conf.
CHAP is a more secure method of authentication than the Password Authentication Protocol (PAP), since CHAP passwords or pass-phrases (referred to as secrets) are never actually transmitted over the link.
Note that the ISDN User's Guide, available on-line with InSight, has not been updated to include information about these two topics. For more information on CHAP and the IETF Multilink Protocol, refer to the article titled "New Features in IRIX PPP" in the March/April 1996 issue of Pipeline, available on-line with InSight.
ISDN Enhancements
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is supported on Indy systems under IRIX 6.2. This release includes support for the Application Software Interface (ASI) which provides an interface for communications application development over ISDN. In addition, IRIX 6.2 incorporates many bug fixes, including those previously available in patch 841 for IRIX 5.3.
ISDN has been approved for the following switch protocols:
Customers in countries not listed should contact the local ISDN carrier for more information. Connecting ISDN equipment that has not been approved to an ISDN network may be a violation of local law.
FLEXlm
Silicon Graphics is adopting Globetrotter Software's FLEXlm license manager as the primary licensing software. There are several reasons for this change, including FLEXlm's status as the defacto standard among Unix software vendors, as well as its simpler and more reliable concurrent license support.
All newly licensed SGI products will use FLEXlm. Products that are licensed with NetLS will convert to FLEXlm as new versions are released. SGI will continue to support NetLS for those products that have not converted to FLEXlm.
FLEXlm is similar to NetLS, but provides features to simplify administration and improve performance.
XFS is an 64-bit journalled filesystem with integrated volume management and guaranteed rate I/O. XFS provides fast recovery by quickly referencing a small journal of recent filesystem transactions, bypassing the traditional, non-scalable UNIX filesystem checking utility.
XFS was first introduced as a separate option with IRIX 5.3, and was included in the release of IRIX 6.1. With IRIX 6.2, SGI provides support for EFS and XFS across all platforms. Customers currently using EFS filesystems should plan on migrating to XFS in the near future. In future releases, XFS will replace EFS, and eventually SGI will remove the ability to write to EFS filesystems. All new systems are shipped with XFS as the default filesystem type.
The XFS volume manager xlv(7M) is a superset of the lv(7M) volume manager and supports disk striping, concatenation and a disk-mirroring option.
IRIX 6.2 includes xlv, which replaces IRIX lv and the IRIX Volume Manager product. Customers currently using lv or the Volume Manager should plan on migrating to xlv. IRIX 6.2 is the last release that will support lv. (IRIX 5.2 was the last release that provided support for the IRIX Volume Manager.) SGI provides the lv_to_xlv(1M) command to convert logical volumes using lv to xlv.
CacheFS, AutoFS and NFS3 are all supported with XFS filesystems. However, programs that access large files and filesystems may have to be modified to be able to access the increased file and filesystem size. In addition, client systems that do not have support for XFS filesystems may not be able to access the larger files and filesystems.
Enhancements and New Features
Graphical interfaces are now available to manage XFS filesystems (xfsm and xdkm) and xlv volumes (xlvm). No manual pages are provided for these commands. Documentation is provided through the on-line help only.
The command xlv_admin(1M) has been replaced by xlv_mgr(1M). Xlv_mgr has a command oriented interface and provides additional functionality.
Notice The xlv plexing (mirroring) and additional GRIO streams licensing has been changed from NetLS to FLEXlm. Customers upgrading from previous releases of IRIX using volume mirroring or GRIO must acquire a FLEXlm license before upgrading to IRIX 6.2. Failure to acquire a new license will prevent the mirrored volume from mounting, and prevent access to the additional GRIO streams.
Xfsdump(1M) and xfsrestore(1M) now support parallel dumps by dividing the dump stream among multiple tape drives. Each tape created by a dump stream in a parallel backup can be used independently of the other tapes.
The XFS filesystem now supports extended attributes. Extended attributes are arbitrary name or value pairs associated with any file. The utility attr(1), along with several system calls, can be used to manipulate extended attributes.
The manual Getting Started with XFS Filesystems has been removed. All information regarding XFS filesystems has been integrated into the manual IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems (available on-line with InSight).
Quotas(4) for XFS filesystems are not currently available.
In general, if a bug relevant to XFS or xlv was fixed in a patch for IRIX 5.3 or IRIX 6.1, the software changes in the patch have been incorporated into IRIX 6.2. In addition, a number of additional XFS and xlv bug fixes have been made in IRIX 6.2. Refer to chapter four of the eoe release notes for a list.
IP Aliasing
IP aliasing is a feature in IRIX 6.2 which is used to assign multiple IP addresses to a single physical network interface. This allows a single interface to accept packets for more than one IP destination address.
IPaliases is a useful administrative tool often used by Internet Service Providers (ISP) when providing World Wide Web home pages to many different organizations, each with its own IP address. IPaliases may also be used when changing network numbers so that packets can be accepted for both the new and the old IP addresses.
IPaliases was first introduced as patch 797 for IRIX 5.3. With this patch, IPaliases provided reasonable performance when using small numbers of IP addresses. However, if a system had a large number of IP aliases, performance suffered due to the use of a linear search list. In IRIX 6.2, IPaliases now uses a hash table based scheme to improve performance. In addition, alias information is dynamically allocated by IRIX so there is no set limit for the allowable number of aliases configured per interface or in total.
Aliasing is accomplished through the ifconfig(1M) alias option. Other administration tools include a /etc/init.d/aliases-ip script to initiate IP aliases listed in /etc/config/ipaliases.options file. Refer to the ifconfig(1M) manual page and the comments included in the file /etc/config/ipaliases.options for more detailed information.
IP aliasing is supported on FDDI and Ethernet interfaces only.
DHCP
IRIX 6.2 supports the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) extensions to bootp(1M) (RFC 1541, 1532-1534). DHCP is designed to provide a way to assign IP network addresses, subnet masks and default router addresses dynamically. Instead of having to configure each new system manually, it is possible to connect a system to the network and let it negotiate with a DHCP server to determine the appropriate network parameters.
Client side features:
Server side features:
MTU Discovery
MTU discovery provides a mechanism for dynamically discovering the maximum transmission unit (MTU) of an arbitrary network connection from source to destination if the destination is not on the local network. Because fragmentation of a packet can only occur once, if MTU discovery is not available, the MTU is set to the smallest possible fragment (576 bytes).
Negotiating the MTU per connection should lead to networking performance gains since packets larger than the MTU will not be sent, thus avoiding fragmentation.
In addition, since MTU negotiations now occur per connection, the administrator no longer needs to set the subnetsarelocal or allnetsarelocal flags in the file /var/sysgen/master.d/bsd.
MTU discovery has been available but configured off with previous releases of IRIX. With IRIX 6.2, MTU discovery is configured on by default. To turn MTU discovery off, use a system editor such as vi(1) and edit the file /var/sysgen/master.d/bsd. Change the line that says int tcp_mtudisc = 1; to int tcp_mtudisc = 0;, generate a new kernel using autoconfig(1M), and reboot(1M) the system.
Support for Large User IDs
IRIX 6.2 provides support for large user IDs and group IDs. They may be up to 2^31-1 or approximately two billion. The intent is not to support systems with two billion distinct users but rather give administrators the flexibility to use a more natural number as the UID (e.g., employee number).
Not all IRIX subsystems have been modified to handle the new 32 bit user and group IDs. In particular, users with large UIDs cannot own files on an EFS filesystem. In addition, because not all vendors support large UIDs, problems can occur when NFS mounting filesystems in a heterogeneous network environment. To avoid these problems, fstab(4) supports a shortuid option which prevents users with a UID or GID greater than 65535 from creating or owning files on NFS mounted filesystems.
Conventions regarding the assignment of user IDs remain mostly unchanged. User IDs in the range of 0 through 99 are reserved for the system. User IDs in the range 100 to 2147483647 are for regular users, with two exceptions (60001, nobody and 60002, noaccess).
ONC3/NFS Enhancements
A number of enhancements have been made to the optional ONC3/NFS product. This section discusses two of them, AutoFS and CacheFS. For more information, refer to the NFS release notes.
AutoFS
In addition to automount(1M), IRIX 6.2 includes AutoFS(1M) as part of the optional ONC3/NFS product. AutoFS is a new automounter, and like automount, provides automatic and transparent NFS mounts of filesystems when needed. AutoFS differs from automount in the following ways:
Cache Filesystem
The optional ONC3/NFS product for IRIX 6.2 includes support for the Cache Filesystem (CacheFS(4) or CFS). CacheFS allows the system to retain a copy of frequently accessed remote files locally. Because the cached copy is only updated when the original has been changed, file sharing performance is increased, and network load is reduced.
The following list highlights some of the changes that have been made to CacheFS for IRIX 6.2. For more detailed information, refer to chapter three and four of the onc3_eoe release notes.
Bug Fixes
In addition to the specific changes discussed in this article, many bug fixes have been incorporated into IRIX 6.2. Interested readers should examine the chapter (usually) titled "Bug Fixes" or "Changes and Additions" in the release notes for the specific subsystem.
To read the release notes on a graphics terminal before installing the software, use the command:
% /CDROM/CDgrelnotes
To read the release notes on an ASCII terminal, use the command:
% /CDROM/CDrelnotes
This assumes that one of the two IRIX 6.2 CD-ROMs is mounted on the directory /CDROM.