Xref: sparky comp.unix.bsd:7373 comp.os.linux:13332 Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.linux Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu! usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!boulder!ucsu!rintintin.Colorado.EDU!ngoh From: ng...@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (NGO HIEN D) Subject: Binary compatibility question... Message-ID: <1992Oct13.223537.11949@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> Sender: ne...@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (USENET News System) Nntp-Posting-Host: rintintin.colorado.edu Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 22:35:37 GMT Lines: 20 I am unable to find the info I need through the FAQ's and scanning the newsgroups, so that leaves me the post-and-ask-a- possibly-trivial-or-completely-obvious-question method :). I need to run a specific piece of software on either 386BSD or Linux that is only distributed in binary form... it's a commercial product. My question is: is either Linux or 386BSD "88 Open Compliant?" The tech-guy popped this term on me and I was unaware of any such compatibility standard (wouldn't be a first.) There is another option to run this program, however. They have a Xenix version also, and I know that under Linux there is a Xenix emulator. How complete is this emulator? The latest version on tsx-11 is still the early alpha. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Hien D. Ngo ng...@rtt.colorado.edu | | Computer Science Undergraduate | | University of Colorado at Boulder | \--------------------------------------------------------------------------/
Xref: sparky comp.unix.bsd:7467 comp.os.linux:13467 Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!hydra!klaava!torvalds From: torv...@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.linux Subject: Re: Binary compatibility question... [Summary] Message-ID: <1992Oct15.092205.28084@klaava.Helsinki.FI> Date: 15 Oct 92 09:22:05 GMT References: <1992Oct13.223537.11949@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> <1992Oct14.014146.20610@tfs.com> <1992Oct14.193014.537@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> Organization: University of Helsinki Lines: 25 In article <1992Oct14....@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> ng...@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (NGO HIEN D) writes: > >From: Cameron Spitzer 764-6339 <came...@nad.3com.com> > >There *is* an "Application Binary Interface" for System V on the [34]86. >I was real disappointed to find out Linux doesn't use it. Don't know why he >doesn't either. The simple reason linux isn't even close the the intel ABI is that I simply hadn't got a clue about how it looked - intel never contacted me about it :-) and I certainly didn't want to go to any unnecessary trouble over it. As it turns out, the linux-ss project might be helped by linux following the intel ABI or at least being a bit closer (ie lcall 7,$0 for system calls), so I might put in some hooks for it - I'll take a look at the xenix emulator when I get some time. Making linux run most normal i386 ABI binaries would probably be pretty simple: you'd just need a simple wrapper around the system calls mechanism. To get more complete support, the signal handler stack frame would have to be changed etc, but very few programs care about that anyway. Linus