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From: jkh@whisker.lotus.ie (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Subject: NetBSD vs FreeBSD binary compatability
In-Reply-To: nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu's message of 5 Oct 1993 02: 33:36 GMT
Message-ID: <JKH.93Oct5040830@whisker.lotus.ie>
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Nntp-Posting-Host: whisker.lotus.ie
Organization: Lotus Development Ireland
References: <hastyCDzEwM.384@netcom.com> <hastyCDzwJp.9D5@netcom.com>
<1993Sep27.222440.29893@ieunet.ie> <28p0cfINNaqe@flinx.robin.de>
<28qme0$bgo@pdq.coe.montana.edu>
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1993 04:08:30 GMT
Lines: 52
In article <28qme0$bgo@pdq.coe.montana.edu> nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu (Nate Williams) writes:
In article <28p0cfINNaqe@flinx.robin.de>,
Hannes Deeken <hannes@flinx.RoBIN.de> wrote:
>jkh@whisker.lotus.ie writes:
>
>>>As for the binaries compiled under NetBSD-0.8, there is only one
>!!! ^
>>>format available and it is the same as for 386bsd-0.1.
>
>>Sorry, but this is just wrong.
>
>Sure?
Positive!
Re-reading this, I think he was intimating that 0.8 hadn't changed
over yet, so it was in fact compatable. I must confess that my memory
blurs here, so he may in fact be correct and I wrong, but to use a
related analogy, it's still sort of like saying "the following is
correct C:"
foo(a, b)
{
a = 10;
return 5;
}
Well, sure, in K&R C is was OK to not declare function return values
or arguments that defaulted to int, but it's still BAD C, and any
reasonable ANSI compiler will spit at it.
The analogy extends to counting on binary compatability only for a
specific version, where it may be plausibly correct to say "NetBSD is
binary compatable with FreeBSD", but net postings have a way of losing
context and I can assure you that the person who makes this statement,
however truthfully, will end up misleaading the hell out of someone
who comes in at the middle. So, while he may have been right and I
wrong on facts, I think I was still right on intent. If you really
really want things to work realiably on FreeBSD, don't compile them
under NetBSD without using the special -Z flag provided for that
purpose. If you want things to work under either FreeBSD or NetBSD,
don't compile them under 386BSD at all, since the DBM differences may
hose you good. It's just too easy to get confused (speaking as
someone who's already received several unrunnable NetBSD compiled
submissions for FreeBSD!).
Jordan
--
(Jordan K. Hubbard) jkh@violet.berkeley.edu, jkh@al.org, jkh@whisker.lotus.ie
I do not speak for Lotus, nor am I even a Lotus employee. I am an independent
contractor.