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Subject: Unix - Frequently Asked Questions (6/7) [Frequent posting] Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.shell,comp.answers,news.answers From: tmatimar@isgtec.com (Ted Timar) Date: 14 May 1994 10:18:55 GMT Archive-name: unix-faq/faq/part6 Version: $Id: part6,v 2.5 1994/04/28 19:25:03 tmatimar Exp $ These seven articles contain the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions often seen in comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.shell. Please don't ask these questions again, they've been answered plenty of times already - and please don't flame someone just because they may not have read this particular posting. Thank you. This collection of documents is Copyright (c) 1994, Ted Timar. All rights reserved. Permission to distribute the collection is hereby granted providing that distribution is electronic, no money is involved, reasonable attempts are made to use the latest version and all credits and this copyright notice are maintained. Other requests for distribution will be considered. All information here has been contributed with good intentions, but none of it is guaranteed either by the contributors or myself to be accurate. The users of this information take all responsibility for any damage that may occur. Many FAQs, including this one, are available on the archive site rtfm.mit.edu in the directory pub/usenet/news.answers. The name under which a FAQ is archived appears in the "Archive-Name:" line at the top of the article. This FAQ is archived as "unix-faq/faq/part[1-7]". These articles are divided approximately as follows: 1.*) General questions. 2.*) Relatively basic questions, likely to be asked by beginners. 3.*) Intermediate questions. 4.*) Advanced questions, likely to be asked by people who thought they already knew all of the answers. 5.*) Questions pertaining to the various shells, and the differences. 6.*) An overview of Unix variants. 7.*) An comparison of configuration management systems (RCS, SCCS). This article includes answers to: 6.1) Disclaimer, introduction and acknowledgements. 6.2) A very brief look at Unix history. 6.3) Main Unix flavors. 6.4) Unix Standards. 6.5) Identifying your Unix flavor. 6.6) Brief notes on some well-known (commercial/PD) Unices. 6.7) Real-time Unices. 6.8) Unix glossary. If you're looking for the answer to, say, question 6.5, and want to skip everything else, you can search ahead for the regular expression "^6.5)". While these are all legitimate questions, they seem to crop up in comp.unix.questions or comp.unix.shell on an annual basis, usually followed by plenty of replies (only some of which are correct) and then a period of griping about how the same questions keep coming up. You may also like to read the monthly article "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions" in the newsgroup "news.announce.newusers", which will tell you what "UNIX" stands for. With the variety of Unix systems in the world, it's hard to guarantee that these answers will work everywhere. Read your local manual pages before trying anything suggested here. If you have suggestions or corrections for any of these answers, please send them to to tmatimar@isgtec.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Disclaimer, introduction and acknowledgements. From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" <lew@bnr.ca> Date: Wed Nov 17 11:21:35 EST 1993 X-Version: 2.5 6.1) Disclaimer, introduction and acknowledgements. The following is offered with no guarantee as to accuracy or completeness. I have done what I can in the time available, often with conflicting information, and it still is very much work in progress. I hope to keep improving this summary. Comments and corrections welcome: lew@bnr.ca. First a short definition. By Unix we mean an operating system typically written in C, with a hierarchical file system, integration of file and device I/O, whose system call interface includes services such as fork(), pipe(), and whose user interface includes tools such as cc, troff, grep, awk, and a choice of shell. Note that UNIX is a registered trademark of USL (AT&T), but will be used here in its generic sense. Most Unices (the more common plural form) are derived more or less directly from AT&T code (some code from the first C version is presumably still left in most), but there are also clones (i.e. Unix-compatible systems with no AT&T code). In addition, there are also Unix-like environments (e.g. VOS) sitting on top of other OSs, and OSs inspired from Unix (yes, even DOS!). These are not covered here. Little on real-time Unices yet (although more is planned). Unix comes in an incredible variety of flavors. This is to a large extent due to availability of sources and the ease of porting and modifying Unix. Typically, a vendor of Unix will start with one basic flavor (see below), take ideas/code from the other major flavor, add and change many things, etc. This results in yet another new Unix flavor. Today, there are literally hundreds of Unices available, the closest thing to standard Unix being (by definition) System V. This answer was put together mostly from information on the net and email. Some specific sources are also mentioned in the appropriate sections. Acknowledgements: (in addition to references): pat@bnr.ca, guy@auspex.com, pen@lysator.liu.se, mikes@ingres.com, mjd@saul.cis.upenn.edu, root%candle.uucp@ls.com, ee@atbull.bull.co.at, Aaron_Dailey@stortek.com, ralph@dci.pinetree.org, sbdah@mcshh.hanse.de, macmach@andrew.cmu.edu, jwa@alw.nih.gov [4.4BSD], roeber@axpvms.cern.ch, bob@pta.pyramid.com.au, bad@flatlin.ka.sub.org, m5@vail.tivoli.com, dan@fch.wimsey.bc.ca, jlbrand@uswnvg.com, jpazer@usl.com, ym@satelnet.org, merritt@gendev.slc.paramax.com, many that I forgot, and all the other folks whose posts I read. Many thanks! ------------------------------ Subject: A very brief look at Unix history. From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" <lew@bnr.ca> Date: Wed Nov 17 11:21:35 EST 1993 X-Version: 2.5 6.2) A very brief look at Unix history. Unix history goes back to 1969 and the famous "little-used PDP-7 in a corner" on which Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie (the R in K&R) and others started work on what was to become Unix. The name "Unix" was intended as a pun on Multics (and was written "Unics" at first -- UNiplexed Information and Computing System). For the first 10 years, Unix development was essentially confined to Bell Labs. These initial versions were labeled "Version n" or "Nth Edition" (of the manuals), and were for DEC's PDP-11 (16 bits) and later VAXen (32 bits). Some significant versions include: V1 (1971): 1st Unix version, in assembler on a PDP-11/20. Included file system, fork(), roff, ed. Was used as a text processing tool for preparation of patents. Pipe() appeared first in V2! V4 (1973): Rewritten in C, which is probably the most significant event in this OS's history: it means Unix can be ported to a new hardware in months, and changes are easy. The C language was originally designed for the Unix operating system, and hence there is a strong synergy between C and Unix. V6 (1975): First version of Unix widely available outside Bell Labs (esp. in universities). This was also the start of Unix diversity and popularity. 1.xBSD (PDP-11) was derived from this version. J. Lions published "A commentary on the Unix Operating System" based on V6. V7 (1979): For many, this is the "last true Unix", an "improvement over all preceding and following Unices" [Bourne]. It included full K&R C, uucp, Bourne shell. V7 was ported to the VAX as 32V. The V7 kernel was a mere 40 Kbytes! Here (for reference) are the system calls of V7: _exit, access, acct, alarm, brk, chdir, chmod, chown, chroot, close, creat, dup, dup2, exec*, exit, fork, fstat, ftime, getegid, geteuid, getgid, getpid, getuid, gtty, indir, ioctl, kill, link, lock, lseek, mknod, mount, mpxcall, nice, open, pause, phys, pipe, pkoff, pkon, profil, ptrace, read, sbrk, setgid, setuid, signal, stat, stime, stty, sync, tell, time, times, umask, umount, unlink, utime, wait, write. These Vn versions were developed by the Computer Research Group (CRG) of Bell Labs. Another group, the Unix System Group (USG), was responsible for support. A third group at Bell Labs was also involved in Unix development, the Programmer's WorkBench (PWB), to which we owe, for example, sccs, named pipes and other important ideas. Both groups were merged into Unix System Development Lab in 1983. Another variant of Unix was CB Unix (Columbus Unix) from the Columbus branch of Bell Labs, responsible of Operations Support Systems. Its main contribution was parts of SV IPC. Work on Unix continued at Bell Labs in the 1980s. The V series was further developed by the CRG (Stroustrup mentions V10 in the 2nd edition of his book on C++), but we don't seem to hear much about this otherwise. The company now responsible for Unix (System V) is called Unix System Laboratories (USL) and is majority-owned by AT&T. Novell has bought USL (early 93)?! Novell has given rights to the "UNIX" trademark to X/Open (late 93). But much happened to Unix outside AT&T, especially at Berkeley (where the other major flavor comes from). Vendors (esp. of workstations) also contributed much (e.g. Sun's NFS). The book "Life with Unix" by Don Libes and Sandy Ressler is fascinating reading for anyone interested in Unix, and covers a lot of the history, interactions, etc.. Much in the present section is summarized from this book. ------------------------------ Subject: Main Unix flavors. From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" <lew@bnr.ca> Date: Wed Nov 17 11:21:35 EST 1993 X-Version: 2.5 6.3) Main Unix flavors. Until recently, there were basically two main flavors of Unix: System V (five) from AT&T, and the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). SVR4 is essentially a merge of these two flavors. End '91, OSF/1 from the Open Software Foundation was released (as a direct competitor to System V) and may (future will tell) change this picture. The following lists the main releases and features of System V, BSD and OSF/1. System V from AT&T. Typical of Intel hardware. Most often ported Unix, typically with BSD enhancements (csh, job control, termcap, curses, vi, symbolic links). System V evolution is now overseen by Unix International (UI). UI members include AT&T, Sun, .... Newsgroup: comp.unix.sysv[23]86. Main releases: - System III (1982): first commercial Unix from AT&T - FIFOs (named pipes) (later?) - System V (1983): - IPC package (shm, msg, sem) - SVR2 (1984): - shell functions (sh) - SVID (System V Interface Definition) - SVR3 (1986) for ? platforms: - STREAMS (inspired by V8), poll(), TLI (network software) - RFS - shared libs - SVID 2 - demand paging (if hardware supports) - SVR3.2: - merge with Xenix (Intel 80386) - networking - SVR4 (1988), mainstream of Unix implementations, merge of System V, BSD, and SunOS. - From SVR3: sysadmin, terminal I/F, printer (from BSD?), RFS, STREAMS, uucp - From BSD: FFS, TCP/IP, sockets, select(), csh - From SunOS: NFS, OpenLook GUI, X11/NeWS, virtual memory subsystem with memory-mapped files, shared libraries (!= SVR3 ones?) - ksh - ANSI C - Internationalization (8-bit clean) - ABI (Application Binary Interface -- routines instead of traps) - POSIX, X/Open, SVID3 - SVR4.1 - async I/O (from SunOS?) - SVR4.2 (based on SVR4.1ES) - Veritas FS, ACLs - Dynamically loadable kernel modules - Future: - SVR4 MP (multiprocessor) - Use of Chorus microkernel? Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Typical of VAXen, RISCs, many workstations. More dynamic, research versions now than System V. BSD is responsible for much of the popularity of Unix. Most enhancements to Unix started here. The group responsible at UCB (University of California at Berkeley) is the Computer System Research Group (CSRG). They closed down in 1992. Newsgroup: comp.unix.bsd. Main releases: (much reorganized wrt dates and releases, hope it's converging) - 2.xBSD (1978) for PDP-11, still of significance? (2.11BSD was released in 1992!). - csh - 3BSD (1978): - virtual memory - 4.?BSD: - termcap, curses - vi - 4.0BSD (1980): - 4.1BSD (?): base of later AT&T CRG versions - job control - automatic kernel config - vfork() - 4.2BSD (1983): - TCP/IP, sockets, ethernet - UFS: long file names, symbolic links - new reliable signals (4.1 reliable signals now in SVR3) - select() - 4.3BSD (1986) for VAX, ?: - 4.3 Tahoe (1988): 4.3BSD with sources, support for Tahoe (32-bit supermini) - Fat FFS - New TCP algorithms - 4.3 Reno (1990) for VAX, Tahoe, HP 9000/300: - most of P1003.1 - NFS (from Sun) - MFS (memory file system) - OSI: TP4, CLNP, ISODE's FTAM, VT and X.500; SLIP - Kerberos - Net1 (?) and Net2 (June 1991) tapes: that portion of BSD which requires no USL copyright - 4.4BSD (alpha June 1992) for HP 9000/300, Sparc, 386, DEC, others; neither VAX nor Tahoe; two versions, lite (~Net2 contents plus, fixes and new architectures) and encumbered (everything, requires USL license): - new virtual memory system (VMS) based on Mach 2.5 - virtual filesystem interface, log-structured filesystem, size of local filesystem up to 2^63, NFS (freely redistributable, works with Sun's, over UDP or TCP) - ISO/OSI networking support (based on ISODE): TP4/CLNP/802.3 and TP0/CONS/X.25, session and above in user space; FTAM, VT, X.500. - most of POSIX.1 (esp. new terminal driver a la SV), much of POSIX.2, improved job control; ANSI C headers - Kerberos integrated with much of the system (incl. NFS) - TCP/IP enhancements (incl. header prediction, SLIP) - important kernel changes (new system call convention, ...) - other improvements: FIFOs, byte-range file locking Official 4.4BSD release was expected within 6 months of above. The Open Software Foundation (OSF) released its Unix called OSF/1 end of 1991. Still requires an SVR2 license. Compatible/compliant with SVID 2 (and 3 coming), POSIX, X/Open, etc.. OSF members include Apollo, Dec, HP, IBM, .... - OSF/1 (1991): - based on Mach 2.5 kernel - symmetric multiprocessing, parallelized kernel, threads - logical volumes, disk mirroring, UFS (native), S5 FS, NFS - enhanced security (B1 with some B2, B3; or C2), 4.3BSD admin - STREAMS, TLI/XTI, sockets - shared libs, dynamic loader (incl. kernel) - Motif GUI - Future: - OSF/1 MK (mikrokernel) based on Mach 3.0 This list of major flavors should probably also include Xenix (Microsoft) which has been the basis for many ports. Derived from V7, S III and finally System V, it is similar externally but significantly changed internally (performance-tuned for micros). Two very good books describe the internals of the two main flavors. These are: - System V: "Design of the Unix Operating SYstem", M.J. Bach. - BSD: "Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD Unix Operating System", Leffler, McKusick, Karels, Quaterman. For a good introduction to OSF/1 (not quite as technical as the previous two), see: "Guide to OSF/1, A Technical Synopsis", published by O'Reilly. On SunOS, "Virtual Memory Architecture in SunOS" and "Shared Libraries in SunOS" in Summer 1989 USENIX Proceedings. A good set of articles on where Unix is going is "Unix Variants" in the Apr 92 issue of Unix Review. Other good sources of information include the bsd-faq file, and many of the newsgroups mentioned in the text. ------------------------------ Subject: Unix Standards. From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" <lew@bnr.ca> Date: Wed Nov 17 11:21:35 EST 1993 X-Version: 2.5 6.4) Unix Standards. This section briefly describes the more important standards relevant to Unix. - IEEE: - 802.x (LAN) standards (LLC, ethernet, token ring, token bus) - POSIX (ISO 9945?): Portable Operating System I/F (Unix, VMS and OS/2!) (only ? have been finalized at this point) - 1003.1: library procedures (mostly system calls) -- roughly V7 except for signals and terminal I/F (1990) - 1003.2: shell and utilities - 1003.3: test methods and conformance - 1003.4: real-time: binary semaphores, process memory locking, memory-mapped files, shared memory, priority scheduling, real-time signals, clocks and timers, IPC message passing, synchronized I/O, asynchronous I/O, real-time files - 1003.5: Ada language bindings - 1003.6: security - 1003.7: system admin (incl. printing) - 1003.8: transparent file access - 1003.9: FORTRAN language bindings - 1003.10: super computing - 1003.12: protocol-independent I/Fs - 1003.13: real-time profiles - 1003.15: supercomputing batch I/Fs - 1003.16: C-language bindings (?) - 1003.17: directory services - 1003.18: POSIX standardized profile - 1003.19: FORTRAN 90 language bindings - X/Open (consortium of vendors, founded 1984): - X/Open Portability Guides (XPGn): - XPG2 (1987), strong SV influence Vol 1: commands and utilities Vol 2: system calls and libraries Vol 3: terminal I/F (curses, termio), IPC (SV), internationalization Vol 4: programming languages (C, COBOL!) Vol 5: data management (ISAM, SQL) - XPG3 (1989) adds: X11 API - XPG4 (1992) adds: XTI? 22 components - XOM series of interfaces: - XOM (X/Open Object Management) generic I/F mechanisms for following - XDS (X/Open Directory Service) - XMH (X/Open Mail ??) - XMP (X/Open Management Protocols) -- not Bull's CM API? - X/Open now has the rights to the "UNIX" trademark (late 93); - "Spec 1170" - This specification is being prepared describing a common API which vendors wanting to use the name "UNIX" will have to comply with (when test suites are available). Merge of SVID3, OSF's AES and other stuff. - AT&T - System V Interface Definition (SVID) - SVID1 (1985, SVR2) Vol 1: system calls and libraries (similar to XPG2.1) - SVID2 (1986, SVR3) Vol 1: system calls and libraries (base, kernel extensions) Vol 2: commands and utilities (base, advanced, admin, software development), terminal I/F Vol 3: terminal I/F (again), STREAMS and TLI, RFS - SVID3 (19??, SVR4) adds Vol 4: ?? &c - APIs - Transport Library Interface (TLI) - ACSE/Presentation Library Interface (APLI) ------------------------------ Subject: Identifying your Unix flavor. From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" <lew@bnr.ca> Date: Wed Nov 17 11:21:35 EST 1993 X-Version: 2.5 6.5) Identifying your Unix flavor. This section lists a number of things you can look at in attempting to identify the base flavor of your Unix. Given the significant exchange of code and ideas between the various flavors and the many changes made by vendors, any statement such as "this Unix is an SVR2" is at best a statistical statement (except for some SVRn ports). Also many Unices offer most of both worlds (either mixed as in SunOS or strictly separated as in Apollo?). So this section is perhaps not very useful... The list of features in previous sections can also help. For example, if a system has a poll(2) but no select(2), it is highly probable that it is derived from SVR3. Also the name of the OS can provide a clue, as well as the logon message (e.g. SGI's "Irix SVR3.3.2") or the output of "uname -a" command. Available commands can also provide hints but this is probably less reliable than kernel features. For example, the type of terminal initialization (inittab or ttys) is a more reliable indicator than the print subsystem. Feature Typical in SVRx Typical in xBSD kernel name /unix /vmunix terminal init /etc/inittab /etc/ttys (only getty to 4.3) boot init /etc/rc.d directories /etc/rc.* files mounted FSs /etc/mnttab /etc/mtab usual shell sh, ksh csh, #! hack native FS S5 (blk: 512-2K) UFS (blk: 4K-8K) file names <= 14 bytes file names < 255 bytes groups need newgrp(1) automatic membership SVR4: multiple groups print subsystem lp, lpstat, cancel lpr, lpq, lprm (lpd daemon) ?? terminal control termio, terminfo, termios (sgtty before 4.3reno) SVR4: termios (POSIX) termcap job control >= SVR4 yes ps command ps -ef ps -aux multiple wait poll select string fcns memset, memcpy bzero, bcopy process mapping /proc (SVR4) ------------------------------ Subject: Brief notes on some well-known (commercial/PD) Unices. From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" <lew@bnr.ca> Date: Wed Nov 17 11:21:35 EST 1993 X-Version: 2.5 6.6) Brief notes on some well-known (commercial/PD) Unices. (I am not at all satisfied with this section, unfortunately I have neither the time nor the documents to make it much better (wrt contents). Should only list Unices known by a reasonably wide audience. Small and non-US Unices welcome, e.g. Eurix. In need of reformatting) This section lists (in alphabetical order) some of the better known Unices along with a brief description of their nature. AIX: IBM's Unix, based on SVR2 (later up to SVR3.2?) with varying degrees of BSD extensions, for various hardwares. Proprietary system admin (SMIT). Both 850 and Latin-1 CPs. Quite different from most Unices and among themselves. Newsgroup: comp.unix.aix. - 1.x (for 386 PS/2) - 2.x (for PC RTs) - 3.x (for RS/6000), paging kernel, logical volume manager, i18n; 3.2 adds TLI/STREAMS. SV-based with many enhancements. - AIX/ESA, runs native on S/370 and S/390 mainframes, based on OSF/1. AIX was to have been base for OSF/1 until Mach was chosen instead. I hope this subsection is converging :-) AOS (IBM): 4.3BSD port to IBM PC RT (for educational institutes). Don't confuse with DG's proprietary OS of same name. Arix: SV A/UX (Apple): SV with Berkeley enhancements, NFS, Mac GUI. System 6 (later System 7) runs as guest of A/UX (opposite of MachTen). Newsgroup: comp.unix.aux. - 2.0: SVR2 with 4.2BSD, system 6 Mac applications. - 3.0 (1992): SVR2.2 with 4.3BSD and SVR3/4 extensions; X11R4, MacX, TCP/IP, NFS, NIS, RPC/XDR, various shells, UFS or S5FS. System 7 applications. - 4.0 will have/be OSF/1. BOS for Bull's DPX/2 (680x0) - V1 (1990): SVR3 with BSD extensions (FFS, select, sockets), symmetric MP, X11R3 - V2 (1991): adds job control, disk mirroring, C2 security, DCE extensions 386BSD: Jolitz's port of Net2 software. Posix, 32-bit, still in alpha. BSD/386 (80386): from BSDI, with source (augmented Net2 software) Newsgroup: comp.unix.bsd. Chorus/MiXV: Unix SVR3.2 (SVR4) over Chorus nucleus, ABI/BCS. Coherent (80286): Unix clone compatible with V7, some SVR2 (IPC). V4.0 is 32-bit. Newsgroup: comp.os.coherent Consensys: SVR4.2 CTIX: SV-based, from Convergent D-NIX: SV DC/OSx (Pyramid): SVR4. DELL UNIX [DELL Computer Corp.]: SVR4 DomainIX: see DomainOS below. DomainOS (Apollo, now HP): proprietary OS; layered on top is BSD4.3 and SVR3 (a process can use either, neither or both). Development now stopped, some features now in OSF/1 (and NT). Now at SR10.4. Name for SR9.* was DomainIX. Newsgroup: comp.sys.apollo. DVIX (NT's DVS): SVR2 DYNIX (Sequent): 4.2BSD-based DYNIX/PTX: SVR3-based Esix (80386): pure SVR4, X11, OpenLook (NeWS), Xview Eurix (80?86): SVR3.2 (Germany) FTX: Stratus fault-tolerant OS (68K or i860-i960 hardware) Generics UNIX (80386): SVR4.03 (Germany) GNU Hurd (?): vaporware from the Free Software Foundation (FSF): Unix emulator over Mach 3.0 kernel. Many GNU tools are very popular (emacs) and used in the PD Unices. HP-UX (HP): old from S III (SVRx), now SVR2 (4.2BSD?) with SV utilities (they have trouble making up their minds). - 6.5: SVR2 - 7.0: SVR3.2, symlinks - 7.5 - 8.0: BSD based? for HP-9000 CISC (300/400) and RISC (800/700), shared libs - 9.0: includes DCE Interactive SVR3.2 (80x86): pure SVR3. Interactive has been bought by Sun; will their system survive Solaris? Idris: first Unix clone by Whitesmith. - 4D Irix (SGI): SVR3.2, much BSD. Newsgroup: comp.sys.sgi. Linux (80386): PD Unix, conforms to POSIX. Available with sources. Compatible with SVR3.2? Newsgroup: comp.os.linux MachTen, Tenon Intersystems: runs as a guest of System 6, no memory protection, 4.3BSD environment with TCP, NFS. MacMach (Mac II): 4.3BSD over Mach 3.0 microkernel, X11, Motif, GNU software, sources, experimental System 7 as Mach task. Complete with all sources (need Unix license). Mach386: from Mt Xinu. Based on Mach 2.5, with 4.3BSD-Tahoe enhancements. Also 2.6 MSD (Mach Source Distribution). Microport (80x86): pure SVR4, X11, OpenLook GUI Minix (80x86, Atari, Amiga, Mac): Unix clone compatible with V7. Sold with sources. Being POSIXified (sp?). Newsgroup: comp.os.minix. MipsOS: SVish (RISC/OS, now dropped, was BSDish) more/BSD (VAX, HP 9000/300): Mt Xinu's Unix, based on 4.3BSD-Tahoe. Newsgroup: comp.os.xinu? NCR UNIX: SVR4 (4.2?) Net/2 tape (from Berkeley, 1991): BSD Unix, essentially compatible with 4.3BSD, includes only sources free of AT&T code, no low-level code. See 386BSD and BSD/386 above. NetBSD: much improved release of 386BSD (more stable and complete). Ported to [34]86, MIPS, Amiga, Sun, Mac. What is relation to Net/2? NextStep (Next): BSD4.3 over Mach kernel, own GUI. - 1.x, 2.0 (old) - 2.1 (current) - 2.2 (support for NeXT Turbo machines) - 3.0 (now shipping, optimized for 68040 machines) - 3.1 (to be announced) - NeXTSTEP 486 Beta release is scheduled for the 4th quarter 1992. NEWS-OS (Sony) - 3.2 OSF/1 (DEC): DEC's port of OSF/1. I think this is now (4/93) available on DEC's latest Alpha AXP (64-bit machine). OSx (Pyramid): Dualport of both SysV.3 and BSD4.3. PC-IX (IBM 8086): SV Plan 9 (AT&T): announced 1992, complete rewrite, not clear how close to Unix it is. Key points: distributed, very small, various hardwares (Sun, Mips, Next, SGI, generic hobbit, 680x0, PCs), C (not C++ as rumors had it), new compiler, "8 1/2" window system (also very small), 16-bit Unicode, CPU/file servers over high speed nets. PowerOpen: announced Unix which is to run on the PowerPC chip (from IBM, Apple and Motorola). Mac UI, compatibility to AIX. SCO Xenix (80x86): Versions for XT (not robust!), 286, 386 (with demand paging). Today bulk of code is from System V. Stable product. SCO Unix (80x86): SVR3.2 Sinix [Siemens]: System V base. Solaris (Sparc, 80386): - 1.0: essentially same as SunOS 4.1.1, with OpenWindows 2.0 and DeskSet utilities. - 1.0.1: SunOS 4.1.2 with multiprocessing (kernel not multithreaded); not for 386 - 2.0: (initially announced as SunOS 5.0 in 1988) based on SVR4 (with symmetric MP?), will include support for 386; with OpenWindows 3.0 (X11R4) and OpenLook, DeskSet, ONC, NIS. Both a.out (BSD) and elf (SVR4) formats. Kerberos support. Compilers unbundled! SunOS (680x0, Sparc, i386): based on 4.3BSD, includes much from System V. Main Sun achievements: NFS (1984), SunView (1985), NeWS (1986, postscript imaging, now in OpenWindows), OpenLook GUI standard, OpenWindows (NeWS, X11, SunView!). Newsgroup: comp.sys.sun.*. - 3.x: SV IPC package, FIFOs - 4.0.3: lightweight processes, new virtual mem, shared libs - 4.1: STREAMS & TLI, 8-bit clean?, async I/O, ms-dos file system (continues as Solaris -- see above). UHC (80x86): pure SVR4, X11, Motif Ultrix (DEC): based on 4.2BSD with much of 4.3. Newsgroup: comp.unix.ultrix. - 3.1, 4.0 UNICOS (Cray): System V base. Newsgroup: comp.unix.cray - 5.x, 6,x, 7.0 UTEK (Tektronix) - 4.0 Xenix (80x86): 1st Unix on Intel hardware, based on SVR2 (previously on S III and even V7). Newsgroup: comp.unix.xenix. 3B1 (680x0): SV-based, done by Convergent for AT&T. Newsgroup: comp.sys.3b1. ------------------------------ Subject: Real-time Unices. From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" <lew@bnr.ca> Date: Wed Nov 17 11:21:35 EST 1993 X-Version: 2.5 6.7) Real-time Unices. WARNING: this section is badly in need of work. It's full of errors, and it's incomplete. I hope to have time to look at it this winter (was "this fall"). I doubt all of following are Unices -- input is welcome. The list also includes more common Unices with real-time features, and some non-Unix systems with Unix-like APIs. I don't suppose the latter really belong here, but having collected some notes, I'm hesitant to junk them. See also comp.realtime. Concurrent OS (Concurrent): real Unix, significantly modifed by Concurrent. EP/LX (Control Data): port of LynxOS to R3000. Formerly called TC/IX. LynxOS (Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc): Berkeley and SV compatibility, ground-up rewrite (proprietary), predates SVR4. Is not UNIX, but supports much of the UNIX I/Fs. Fully preemptive, fixed priorities. MiX: microkernel implementation of SVR4 offered by Chorus. Motorola SVR4 has real-time capabilities. QNX (Quantum Software): unix-compatible real real-time OS. RTU (Concurrent), for 68K boxes Solaris 2 has real-time capabilities? Stellix (Stardent); it's Unix, but is it real-time? Venix/386: Interactive SVR3.2 with real-time extensions. VMEexec (Motorola): not Unix, but also shares some I/Fs with Unix. VxWorks (Wind River Systems): Little in common with Unix, has some I/Fs in common with Unix (but not the file system). Newsgroup: comp.os.vxworks. (know nothing about) Convex RTS REAL/IX (AEG) Sorix (Siemens) System V/86 (Motorola) TC/IX (CCD) Velocity (Ready Systems): ------------------------------ Subject: Unix glossary. From: "Pierre (P.) Lewis" <lew@bnr.ca> Date: Wed Nov 17 11:21:35 EST 1993 X-Version: 2.5 6.8) Unix glossary. This section provides short definitions of various concepts and components of (or related to) Unix systems. Chorus: message-passing microkernel, may form basis for a future release of SV. Chorus already have SVR4 running on top (binary-compatible). COSE (Common Open Software Environment) [Sun, HP, IBM]: common look and feel (Motif), common API. Reaction against Windows NT. DCE (Distributed Computing Environment, from OSF): Includes RPC (Apollo's NCS), directory service (local based on DNS, global on X.500), time, security, and threads services, DFS (distrib. file system), .... OS-independent. DME (Distributed Management Environment, from OSF): future. FFS (Fast File System): from Berkeley, 1983. Equivalent (exact?) of UFS in SunOS. Has notions such as cylinder groups, fragments. Mach: modern kernels from CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) on which many Unices and other OSs are based (e.g. OSF/1, MacMach, ...): - 2.5: monolithic kernel with 4.2BSD - 3.0: microkernel with BSD Unix server in user space (and other OSs, e.g. MS-DOS) Newsgroup: comp.os.mach MFS (Memory File System): NeWS (Network extensible Window System), from Sun?: PostScript-based, networked, toolkits (and even clients) loaded in server. Part of OpenWindows. NFS (Network File System): contributed by Sun to BSD, stateless server ONC (Open Network Computing): from Sun(?), includes RPC, name service (NIS aka YP), NFS, ... (found in many Unices, other OSs). RFS (Remote File System): SV, stateful server, incompatible with NFS RPC (Remote Procedure Call): high-level IPC (inter-process communication) mechanism. Two flavors. - ONC: Over TCP or UDP (later OSI), uses XDR to encode data. - DCE: has a different RPC mechanism (based on Apollo's NCS) S5 FS: System V's native file system, blocks 512 to 2K. sockets: BSD interface mechanism to networks (compare TLI). STREAMS: a message-passing kernel mechanism, initially in SVR3, which provides a very good interface for protocol development. TFS (Translucent File System): Sun, COW applied to files. TLI (Transport Library Interface): SV's interface to transport services (TCP, OSI). UI has also defined an APLI (ACSE/Presentation Library Interface) UFS (?): BSD's native file system as seen in SunOS, blocks 4K to 8K, cylinder groups, fragments. XTI (X/Open Transport Interface): TLI with enhancements X11: pixel-oriented window system from MIT. ------------------------------ End of unix/faq Digest part 6 of 7 ********************************** -- Ted Timar - tmatimar@isgtec.com ISG Technologies Inc., 6509 Airport Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L4V 1S7