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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.admin
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!ub4b!sunbim!usenet
- From: db@sunbim.be (Danny Backx)
- Subject: Re: Binary Compatability between Sparc2 and Sparc10?
- Message-ID: <1992Sep11.063750.26107@sunbim.be>
- Sender: usenet@sunbim.be (user news)
- Reply-To: db@sunbim.be
- Organization: Sun Microsystems
- References: <18o9lgINNfpb@early-bird.think.com>
- Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 06:37:50 GMT
- Lines: 42
-
- In article 18o9lgINNfpb@early-bird.think.com, barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) writes:
- >Except for programs that read kernel memory, all Sun SPARC-based systems
- >are intended to be binary compatible.
-
- Not quite true.
- There are several restrictions. Not reading kernel memory is only one of them.
-
- The most important condition is that the application should be linked with shared
- libraries. [The most important one there is probably libc - it interfaces your BSD
- application with the SVR4 kernel which has different system calls.]
-
- The following list is taken from "Solaris 2.0 Transition Planning Guide for System
- Administrators", page 4 :
- The major restriction on SunOS 4.x binary compatibility is that the application
- must dynamically link the C Library and other system libraries.
-
- Other minor restrictions also apply. Applications must not :
- - Trap directly into the operating system
- - Rely on application-specific ioctls or drivers
- - write or read directly to system files
- - access and interpret kernel data structures via /dev/kmem or libkvm
- - use undocumented SunOS interfaces
-
- A good example of what will happen if you have a statically linked application is
- Frame Maker (3.1X) - it kindly says "Bad system call".
-
- Danny
- ---
- Danny Backx
- System Engineer
-
- E-Mail: db@sunbim.be (or uunet!mcsun!ub4b!sunbim!db)
-
- Telephone: +32(2)759.59.25 Fax : +32(2)759.47.95
-
- Postal Mail :
- Danny Backx
- BIM
- Kwikstraat 4
- 3078 Everberg
- Belgium
-
-