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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!mcsun!sun4nl!fwi.uva.nl!casper From: casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper H.S. Dik) Subject: Re: Shared Libs for X11?, was Re: 386bsd -- The New Newsgroup Message-ID: <1992Sep15.150139.15216@fwi.uva.nl> Sender: news@fwi.uva.nl Nntp-Posting-Host: adam.fwi.uva.nl Organization: FWI, University of Amsterdam References: <18iprpINNg6e@agate.berkeley.edu> <1992Sep8.200625.2894@socrates.umd.edu> <veit.716026274@du9ds3> <18lkkkINN14d@agate.berkeley.edu> <veit.716107923@du9ds3> <7dnL02y821gh01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> <veit.716291291@du9ds3> <1992Sep14.232949.9093@bby.com.au> <veit.716561866@du9ds3> Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 15:01:39 GMT Lines: 35 veit@du9ds3.uni-duisburg.de (Holger Veit) writes: >This is what I originally intended; I'm just sitting in front of a Sparc, >and curiously watch what it is doing...:-). There are two possible problems: >1. What will Sun say about using (or reverse-engineering) their solution > (in the light of AT&T vs. BSDI/UCB...)? There is no reverse engeneering involved in AT&T vs BSDI/UCB. For one, BSD had access to AT&T source code. I haven't heard Sun complaining about anyone using/reimplementing the things they created. >2. It is rumoured that the whole Sun DL stuff depends on or contains > self-modifying code, which caused/s problems with SunOS look-alikes > like Solbourne OS/MP (was fixed by some strange patch in OS/MP). I don't > know whether this is needed (I suppose, not), but it make me think that > this can be not a clean solution. All dynamic linkiung will probably have some sort of ``self modifying code'' problem. The dynamic linker will have to patch the code somewhat. If there was a problem on Solbournes that didn't exist on Suns than that can be easily explained. The SPARC based machines shipped by Sun all had a unified I&D cache (The SS10 changes that, however). Solbournes ships machines with a split I&D cache. This gives some problems if you code. The solution is simple, flush the cache after you're done with linking. There are a number of problems with the shared library implementation in SunOS 4.x. Although the construction of shared libraries seems easy enough, breaking the rules isn't easily detected and costs a fortune in VM. Casper -- | Casper H.S. Dik | casper@fwi.uva.nl