HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: brandy@tramp.Colorado.EDU (BRANDAUER CARL M)
Subject: Re: UNIX System III -> System V: where is IV?
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 20:56:05 GMT

cmilono@netcom.com (Carlo Milono) writes:


>I have been involved in UNIX for about ten years.  I diddled with some 
>System 7 (Arabic numbers), then on UNIX System II (Roman)...and then the
>first System V (Roman numeral).  What ever happened to UNIX System IV?

>I have reason to believe that such a configuration existed, but was never
>brought to the market, and such a hole in the scheme (along with some info
>I have received), has me intrigued.  System IV is like seeing a UFO.

Your belief is correct - what would have been called System IV was released
within BTL as Release 4.0 but lasted only a short time before Release 5.0
which became System V.  Also, remember that Arabic number releases were
'Versions', not Systems.
From: boyd@prl.dec.com (Boyd Roberts)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: UNIX System III -> System V: where is IV?
Date: 2 Oct 92 08:36:54 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - Paris Research Laboratory

There was a System 4, but it never really saw the light of day.
I had the dubious pleasure of booting it on an 11/70 once.


Boyd Roberts			boyd@prl.dec.com

``When the going gets wierd, the weird turn pro...''
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
From: cjc@ulysses.att.com (Chris Calabrese)
Subject: Re: Origins of Unix
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 19:56:36 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ

In article <BvI0op.1sy@cs.dal.ca>, digdon@ug.cs.dal.ca (Mike Digdon) writes:
|> 
|> If I remember my UNIX history correctly, Ken Thompson wrote MULTICS, which
|> was supposed to be a multi-user OS. However, it failed quite miserably
|> at the multi-user level.
|> 
|> Ken then started work on another OS, which Brian Kernigan (as a joke because
|> of MULTICS non-multi-user abilities) quickly named UNICS. Of course, turning
|> UNICS to UNIX was obvious..

Not that I'm the ultimate authority on the history of the name UNIX,
but it goes more like this...(with my copy of the Bach book in hand):

In 1965 Bell Labs joined GE and MIT Project MAC to developed a new OS
called MULTICS (which stands for something like Multiple Access Time
Sharing Computer System, but I can't remember exactly what at the
momemt).  There was a version working on GE iron by '69, but by that
time the Labs had already left the project (it wasn't going
anywhere).

Thompson tried out some of his filesystem ideas that he developed
while on MULTICS on GE/Honeywell iron running GECOS and developed
Space Travel (an early video game).  Later he took his stuff to an
unused PDP-7.  Since the PDP-7 had a lousy development environment
(he was compiling his stuff on the GECOS machine), Thompson and
Ritchie implemented a simple OS on it which they called UNICS.
The UNIX name came from Kernighan (according to Bach).  I believe the
UNICS name came from Ritchie (if I remember Tannenbaum correctly).

-- 
Name:			Christopher J. Calabrese
Brain loaned to:	AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
att!ulysses!cjc		cjc@ulysses.att.com
Obligatory Quote:	``pher - gr. vb. to schlepp.
			  phospher - to schlepp light.
			  philosopher - to schlepp thoughts.''
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
From: cmilono@netcom.com (Carlo Milono)
Subject: UNIX System III -> System V: where is IV?
Organization: Netcom - Somewhere in the S.F. Bay Area
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 03:38:12 GMT


I have been involved in UNIX for about ten years.  I diddled with some 
System 7 (Arabic numbers), then on UNIX System II (Roman)...and then the
first System V (Roman numeral).  What ever happened to UNIX System IV?

I have reason to believe that such a configuration existed, but was never
brought to the market, and such a hole in the scheme (along with some info
I have received), has me intrigued.  System IV is like seeing a UFO.
-- 
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Carlo Milono:  cmilono@netcom.com                                       |
|"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign,  |
|that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."   - Jonathan Swift   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: guenther@stolaf.edu (Philip A Guenther)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Zombie processes
Date: 30 Sep 92 20:30:07 GMT
Organization: Academic Computing Center, St. Olaf College

In article <1992Sep30.124711.9665@seas.gwu.edu> mstowski@seas.gwu.edu (Mike Mstowski) writes:
   Any help here with this question is appreciated!

   I'm using SCO Unix 3.2.4 and wrote a program that forks child processes
   over and over again.  The child processes communicate with the parent
   with message queues and shared memory.  The child processes are constantly
   being killed and re-forked from the parent.  This works fine for a while,
   but after some time passes in this program, the system runs out of 
   resources.  The kill of the child process doesn't seem to free the process
   from it's process table slot until the parent process dies. I believe that
   these ZOMBIE processes can be cleaned up somehow!  I'm using semaphores also
   to control access to the shared memory.  Does anyone have this same problem?
   How can I really free up or kill a child process and remove it from the
   system?

   Thanks in advance!!!!!!

You need to wait for each child, as a zombie process is a process that
has died but not yet been waited for.  Probably the easiest thing to
do is provide a SIGCHLD handler that merely does a wait then discards
the result.

Philip Guenther
--
guenther@stolaf.edu (Philip Guenther)       | The ACC might agree with me,
Student Sys Prog, Academic Computing Center | but with that bunch, (and me)
St Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057-1001  | you never know... :-) :-| :-(
"Life makes sense?  LIFE MAKES SENSE!!?  Where do people get these ideas?"-me
From: Eduard.Vopicka@vse.cs (Eduard Vopicka)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Accessing u_psargs[]
Date: 29 Sep 92 17:02:29 GMT

This is follow-up on my question: How can my process overwrite the
contents of u_psargs[] in its own user block under SysV, especially
under SCO and Interactive UNIX / 386 ?

Here is my test program. This program overwrites u_psargs[] in the user
structure for (hopefully) the current process. I have learned from
<sys/user.h> in Interactive UNIX/386 that the user block resides at
kernel virtual address 0xE0000000. It seems that the user block resides
at the same virtual kernel address in the SCO UNIX.

So my question has changed and is now: Is this the safe way how		<<<
can I overwrite u_psargs[] in the user block of my own process under	<<<
SCO and Interactive UNIX / 386 ???					<<<

Is it guaranteed that the write() will always write to the user block of
my own process, e.g. that the write() request will be processed by the
driver in the context of my process, e.g. while the user block for my
process is at kernel virtual 0xE0000000???

I am sorry for asking this trivial question, but I am totally naive
SCO and Interactive SysV user with no knowledge of SysV internals.

Thanks in advance,

Eda


#include <sys/types.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#define MAXSIG 32		/* hard-coded, should be #include */
#define DIRSIZ 14		/* see above */
#include <sys/dir.h>
#include <sys/user.h>
#include <sys/signal.h>
#include <sys/fs/s5param.h>
#include <string.h>

main() {
  int kmem, len;
  extern int errno;
  extern char* sys_errlist[];
  struct user userb;
  char *ps_string="HELLO HELLO HELLO";

  if ((kmem = open("/dev/kmem", O_RDWR, 0)) < 0)
    { printf("open failed: %s\n", sys_errlist[errno]); exit(1); }
  if (lseek(kmem, (char *)0xE0000000L+
    ((char *)(userb.u_psargs)-(char *)(&userb)) , 0) == -1)
    { printf("lseek failed: %s\n", sys_errlist[errno]); exit(1); }
  len=strlen(ps_string)+1;
  if (write(kmem, ps_string, len) != len)
    { printf("write failed: %s\n", sys_errlist[errno]); exit(1); }
  system("/bin/ps -f");		/* See HELLO HELLO HELLO ??? */
}

-- 

============================================================================
= Eduard Vopicka                             e-mail: Eduard.Vopicka@vse.cs =
= Computing Centre                              fax: +42 2 235 85 09       =
= Prague School of Economics                                               =
= W. Churchill square 4                                                    =
= CS 130 67 Prague 3                      ("There is always one more bug") =
============================================================================
From: walter@sfu.ca (Walter Piovesan)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: DBM script
Date: 30 Sep 92 17:13:37 GMT


Does any one know of or have a c-shell script that could be used for
maintaining a name/address/tel database?

Also would be interested on finding out about some biblio dbms system
that might be available....

....mny thx...cheers
-- 
 
    )   )     )  /          : Walter Piovesan
   /   /     / -/- _        : Research Data Library
  / / / ~`  /  /  ( ) /-,   : Simon Fraser University
 (_(_( (-(_(  (____X_/  (_  : Burnaby, B.C. CANADA
                            : walter@sfu.ca  walter@SFUVAX.BITNET
From: Eduard.Vopicka@vse.cs (Eduard Vopicka)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: INTERACTIVE Load average vars
Date: 29 Sep 92 12:20:12 GMT


Please where does the Interactive SysV kernel keep the load averages
(as printed by ruptime), e.g. what is the name and type of the variable(s)?
"ruptime" seems to print reasonable "Load:" values, so the load averages
are probably maintained by the Interactive SysV kernel. Under SCO UNIX,
those data are being kept in "short loadavg[3]", but this is not true under
Interactive SysV.

Thanks in advance,

Ed

-- 

============================================================================
= Eduard Vopicka                             e-mail: Eduard.Vopicka@vse.cs =
= Computing Centre                              fax: +42 2 235 85 09       =
= Prague School of Economics                                               =
= W. Churchill square 4                                                    =
= CS 130 67 Prague 3                      ("There is always one more bug") =
============================================================================
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
From: jacksonk@polaris.cs.rpi.edu (Keith Jackson)
Subject: getcwd(3) and realpath(3) substitutes in GNU++ ?
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 20:01:39 GMT

I've been trying to get a program to do the following :

    o   find the current working directory from which program was
	invoked (not the directory in which the binary resides
	from argv[0])

    o   find the canonical pathname of a filename given as an argument
	(of course, if the CWD can be found, using stat(2) and CWD,
	this info can be derived)

Unfortunately the library functions getcwd(3v), getwd(3), and
realpath(3) aren't in the gnu++ libraries on our system.  Using
another compiler is not an option, nor is invoking pwd(1), etc.,
from within the code acceptable due to time constraints.  Anyone
know of a good general solution?  (i.e., ANSI C++ likely to be
supported under GNU++.)

E-mail suggestions please.  I'll post a summary.
-- 
__ __  ____ ______ ______ __  __ 	Keith Jackson
|| // ||    | || | | || | ||  ||
||<<  ||==    ||     ||   ||==||	jacksonk@cs.rpi.edu
|| \\ ||___ |_||_|   ||   ||  ||
From: perkins@cps.msu.edu (Stephen Perkins)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: FLASH: Rogue machine eats characters as astonished user watches
Date: 5 Oct 92 20:40:30 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University
Originator: perkins@indian.cps.msu.edu

I posted this to comp.unix.questions (and comp.protocols.ppp before
that!) and received no reply.  It may be that it really was destined
to be answered by gurus! :-)

I have found this problem while trying to get PPP running on a
specific Sun.  I wrote two simple test programs that are designed to
test a modem link (source available on request).  They determine which
characters are being eaten (by terminal servers, etc) as they are sent
across the link (one program writes to stdout, one reads from stdin).
Now, if I run the programs like:

   writeit | readit

without going over the link I get:
  Lost char number 9
  Lost char number 10
  Lost char number 11
  Lost char number 12
  Lost char number 13
  Lost char number 32
This is true on my NeXT and on our Sun server (and all other Suns that
I have tried).

When I run this over the modem link (and through the terminal server
that was in binary mode) I get the same thing.  

However, when I run the same program at the command prompt on the
Sparc for which I'm having problems, I get:

  Lost char number 9
  Lost char number 10
  Lost char number 11
  Lost char number 12
  Lost char number 13
  Lost char number 32
  Lost char number 134
  Lost char number 142
  Lost char number 150
  Lost char number 158
  Lost char number 166
  Lost char number 174
  Lost char number 182
  Lost char number 198
  Lost char number 206
  Lost char number 214
  Lost char number 221
  Lost char number 222
  Lost char number 234
  Lost char number 249
  Lost char number 250

Low and behold, I get the same characters lost when going over the
modem link.  They are being eaten somewhere and this eventually
causes a kernel crash when I run PPP.

I checked the tty settings (via "stty everything") and they are
identical between the PPP sparc and our Sun server.  I also tried the
csh instead of tcsh. Both Suns (PPP Sparc and server) are running
SunOS 4.1.1.

Anybody have any ideas why (and where) the PPP Sparc is eating the
extra characters??

Any help would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve



-- 
====================================================================
Stephen Perkins                    |
Department of Computer Science     | perkins@cps.msu.edu
Michigan State University          |
From: geoff@world.std.com (Geoff Collyer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Origins of Unix
Date: 2 Oct 92 18:28:21 GMT
	<lbugocINNkql@west.west.sun.com> <jonw.717635540@condor>
	<BvI0op.1sy@cs.dal.ca>
Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die

Mike Digdon:
>If I remember my UNIX history correctly, Ken Thompson wrote MULTICS, which
>was supposed to be a multi-user OS. However, it failed quite miserably
>at the multi-user level.

This is getting silly.  We don't have to rely on inaccurate folklore and
people's fault memories; there is a written account of the origins of
UNIX, ``The Evolution of the UNIX Time-sharing System'' by Dennis Ritchie,
originally published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science 79: Language
Design and Programming Methodology, from Springer-Verlag, and later
reprinted in the AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal of October 1984
(volume 63, number 8 part 2).

An executive summary is that Bell Labs, G.E. and M.I.T. had been partners
in the development of Multics, a pioneering timesharing system, but it
wasn't working out, so Bell Labs withdrew from the Multics effort.  Ken
Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Doug McIlroy and Joe Ossanna, among others,
wanted a replacement for the comfy environment they had had on Multics.
During 1969, with help from Rudd Canaday, Thompson and Ritchie designed
and implemented a small operating system for the PDP-7, which Brian
Kernighan named `UNIX' in 1970; to quote the paper:  ``Although it was
not until well into 1970 that Brian Kernighan suggested the name `Unix',
in a somewhat treacherous pun on `Multics', the operating system we know
today was born''.
-- 
Geoff Collyer				world!geoff, world.std.com!geoff
``closed is Open'' - not George Orwell on ``Open'' Systems
open, a. admitting visitors or customers; not yet settled or decided (OPD)
``and it's Open For Business like a cheap bordello'' - Bruce Cockburn
From: dahake@lzusp.att.com (Vaibhav Dahake)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: UTS 2.1 Upgrade
Date: 30 Sep 92 13:59:40 GMT

UTS 2.1 OS Upgrade Experiences on Amdahl 5990

INADS is a 800k line C code PBX application developed
under Unix Operating System. This project is a communication
package (to call ATT PBXs/receive alarms from PBXs) which
heavily uses Unix IPC and Unix File system (home grown 'CORE' database)
features.

We are being forced financially to upgrade to 2.1 version and we are not
very keen because the previous upgrade (UTS 1.2 to 2.0) was
a nightmare.

Does anyone have any experience with UTS2.1 upgrade?
We are looking for basic do's, do not's, pitfalls and 
your valuable suggestions.
(Actually our vendors claim the upgrade is a piece of cake)

Thanks,
Vaibhav Dahake
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
From: mjr@decuac.dec.com (Marcus J. "Buddy can you spare a clue?" Ranum)
Subject: init output to console - why not?
Originator: mjr@hussar.dco.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Washington ULTRIX Resource Center
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 15:04:39 GMT


	I was just wondering the other day if there really actually *is*
a good reason why init doesn't attach its output and error to /dev/console
during autoboots. All this crud of redirecting everything in /etc/{rc|rc.local}
to /dev/console is tedious and irritating. So I tried it. It works, of course.

	Am I missing something - is there any reason NOT to do this?

mjr.
-- 
	It is important to focus on writing software that is "adequate."
Having one's software be "good" or even "excellent" is over-rated. If
"good" were necessary or even important, DOS would not be the de facto
standard operating system.                          -notebooks of a heretic
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
From: tmike@cmptrc.lonestar.org (T. Mike Howeth)
Subject: Re: How to intercept UNIX system calls ?
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 02:33:13 GMT
Organization: CompuTrac Inc., Richardson TX

'test' is NOT a good name for a program on UNIX!  'test' is a shell command.

--
tmike@cmptrc.lonestar.org                                               __
"Whoever said 'getting there is half the fun'                           \/
    has never ridden in a class 8 probe!" - K'Ehleyr
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
From: peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva)
Subject: Re: Here is a puzzle to test your breadth of knowledge
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1992 22:33:44 GMT

In article <137159@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> nessett@llnl.gov (Danny M. Nessett) writes:
> Here is a puzzle to test your breadth of knowledge. I want to connect a
> Heathkit H-19 terminal to a SUN 3/50. What should the termcap entry look
> like? BTW, I'm willing to pay $10 for an H-19 manual.

The h19 emulates the DEC vt52. Try a VT52 termcap entry.
-- 
Peter da Silva                                               `-_-'
Ferranti Intl. Ctls. Corp.                                    'U` 
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012
+1 713 274 5180                                   Har du kramat din varg idag?
From: haley@husc10.harvard.edu (Elizabeth Haley)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Locking out users
Date: 3 Oct 92 10:10:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc10.haley.718107027

Hmmm, that puts a different light on things.
If the thread is about locking out unauthorized logins, do you need to
keep a list of people?
I guess, if they are coming in from tcp-ip and the login request comes
with their username on their local system, you might keep a list of
those in the /etc/png file (personna non grata)... But if their
dialing in this wouldn't help...

As to nailing a user who is on, under the assumption that whoever it
is is either cracking or has stolen a valid account, why not  ps -txx
then kill -9 shell_pid...
Seems simpler than a script.

As to malicious little nasties who get in to screw people, find out
who they are and take care of the problem at their end, with say, a
pitchfork...

(Speaking as one who lost 48 Hours of solid work off three backups
because of a virus.)
( I had a printout, but it was art work in Illustrator... )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
From: agc@bmdhh298.bnr.ca (Alan Carter)
Subject: Re: Semaphores
Organization: BNR-Europe-Limited, Maidenhead, England
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1992 13:18:09 GMT

In article <BvEt5y.7LM@accelr8.com>, jim@accelr8.com (Jim Reiss) writes:
|> I have an application which currently uses a lot of semaphores, which are
|> a limited UNIX resource.  In some cases, the semaphore is being used only
|> locally by a program and is not shared by any other process.  Can anyone
|> suggest a good alternative to using semaphores?  I need a way for the process
|> to sleep until an event happens, which is currently handled by waiting for
|> a change in a semaphore.  Thanks for all input on this.

You obviously have another process that will relinqyuish the semaphore.
Why not connect them with a pipe or socket, and do a blocking read on the
file descriptor?

   Alan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Maidenhead itself is too snobby to be pleasant. It is the haunt of the
   river swell and his overdressed female companion. It is the town of showy
   hotels, patronized chiefly by dudes and ballet girls. 

   Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome, 1889
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: singer@ll.mit.edu (Matthew R. Singer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: UUCP Shared lines?
Date: 6 Oct 92 15:10:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: ll.1992Oct6.151041.25939
Reply-To: singer@ll.mit.edu (Matthew R. Singer)
Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory


--

Can someone provide suggestions on how to get a tty port to be used
by both a dialout package (kermit perhaps) while being setup for uucp
at the same time?  My kermit just hangs if you set line to a port set up
as modem shared.  This would be on either a Sun or Decstation.

Thanks...



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew R. Singer                                    MIT Lincoln Laboratory
(617) 981-3771                                       244 Wood Street
singer@ll.mit.edu                                    Lexington, MA 02173
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
From: pnarayan@cs.tamu.edu (P S Narayan)
Subject: Sector design
Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 14:46:13 GMT

Suppose there are 35 sectors in a track. If the block size is 8k or 16 sectors
then there are two blocks in one track. Will the third block begin at the 33rd
sector or will the remaining 3 sectors be wasted by the filesystem ?
Or will it continue from the 33rd sector for one whole cylinder and waste the
sectors at the end of the cylinder ?

Narayan
pnarayan@cs.tamu.edu

Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
From: scum@pcthree.com (Steve Monroe)
Subject: Re: Here is a puzzle to test your breadth of knowledge
Organization: PC Three
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 15:54:00 GMT

bzs@ussr.std.com (Barry Shein) writes:

>The h19 (I have one at home and it was my home terminal for years
>until it blew up a few weeks ago) has two operational modes ...

... stuff deleted

>(hm, the last two lines were some attempt in 1984, yes I used the
>sucker continuously at home since about 1982 ever since the beehive
>died (don't ask), ...

What have you switched to now?
How long did the beehive last?
Do you expect this one to last 10 years?

Just curious... ;-)
-- 
Steven C. Monroe            VOICE:(703)406-2082                PC Three, Inc.
scum@pcthree.com             FAX:(703)406-2078                  P.O. Box 1644
                                                              Herndon, VA 22070