Other *NIX apps

[Jerry Feldman]

On 16 Apr 2003 14:25:00 -0400
"Kenneth E. Lussier" <ken.lussier at zuken.com> wrote:

> I wasn't asking about source code portability specifically, or binary
> portability, either. My questions and comments stemmed from a
> conversation that I had this morning where I was asked if I could run
> an application on Linux that was written some years ago for Solaris.
> That got me to thinking about the portability issues among *NIX
> versions. I suppose that if you have the source code, then it would be
> a lot easier, since you can change a lot of the dependant factors (if
> you know what you're doing). But, the case that I had this morning was
> more of a "can Linux do this, or do we need to find another way". I
> told them that they probably needed another way since 1) we don't have
> the code 2) they want it to run on an x86 system and it was written
> for SPARC, and 3) I just don't have the time to muck about with it.
> But, I recognized it as a question that I really don't know the answer
> to, and I haven't seen it come up before. In my mind, that would be a
> major question for anyone that was thinking of dumping a proprietary
> *NIX for Linux.
Without reiterating what as already been said. Solaris runs on the Sparc
and on I386. 
So if you have the same processor uderneath, the code itself may run
(with a few reservations).
However, not only will system calls be different, but also some of the
library functions may be different (such as program initialization).
That's why Marc was talkign binary compatible. And, as Paul mentioned,
Digital had code that would allow Vax binaries to run on Alpha VMS, and
code for Windows NT I386 apps to be able to run on Alpha. That
technology was also ported to Alpha/Linux. Some vendors also have
compatibility libraries that allow native Linux applications to run. But
it is usually to get Linux apps to run on the commercial Unix not the
other way around. 
Bottom line is, if you have a 386 Solaris app, you might possibly get it
to work on Linux 386, and possibly a Sparc app might run on Sparc Linux.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9
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