*BSD News Article 38341


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From: iialan@iifeak.swan.ac.uk (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: ELF and dynamic loading (Re: 386BSD vs Linux)
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References: <3alnmi$57g@pdq.coe.montana.edu> <CzM9tE.C83@info.swan.ac.uk> <3aqs7t$cp3@pdq.coe.montana.edu>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 1994 10:47:11 GMT
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In article <3aqs7t$cp3@pdq.coe.montana.edu> nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu (Nate Williams) writes:
>Ahh, but in the case of NetBSD/FreeBSD/Linux, there is not always a
>mapping of functions one to another.  The functions are different, and
>have different API's which would require OS specific libraries.  And,
>because of this it is MUCH more work to determine on a OS by OS basic
>what is required than to just grab all of the shared libraries and
>install them.

Almost everything maps neatly. There are a few obscure calls that don't
really matter - things like sysctl(), ps are rarely portable as binaries.
Real applications should map simply. The worst bit is probably mappings
between the (obsolete) pre posix BSD terminal ioctl()'s and termios. The
real thrust anyway should be towards iBCS2. Thats the common standard and
the one that counts - at least until people like WP jump on the native linux
application bandwagon.

Alan

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