how brain dead is AIX?

[Geoff Coleman]

>From article <508 at ss01.pppl.gov@ccc.nmfecc.gov>, by jsm at ss01.pppl.gov@ccc.nmfecc.gov (John Scott McCauley Jr.):
> I have a copy of 'IBM RISC System/6000 Software Offerings Overview' brochure.
> I am a little worried about two of the statements made: 
> 
> A) When there are conflicts, they are resolved with priority 1) POSIX
> 	2) SVID 3) 4.3 BSD 4) AIX/RT. (p. 3). 
> 
>    I gather that AIX is System V kernel with the Berkeley stuff emulated.
>    So, do you get:
>      1) the System V file system or the 'Berkeley Fast File System'

How about IBM's own file system. I don't believe it shares much in common
with BSD as it has logical volumes which can span physical volumes etc.

>      2) streams or sockets

Both.

>      3) job control (control-Z)

Yes

>      4) AT&T or Berkeley terminal device driver.

Both of these plus a third. Actually you get "posix" rather than AT&T and
an ioctl call to switch between the three (I forget what the third is called).
It would appear that "posix" is the default for ttys and "bsd" is the default
for ptys.

> 
> B) 'Most 4.3 BSD commands, system calls, and library routines are supported.'
>  	(p.3) and features include a '4.3 BSD compatibility library'.  (p.5)
> 
>   Ok, what is missing? 
> 
> One more question: we already have several BSDish systems (Dec- and Sparc-
>   stations).  Things are currently seamless: all programs we have needed so far
>   will compile on both and run fine on both. Would the same be true of an AIX
>   system? Will we have to hire someone full time to support the AIX? How many
>   lines like '#ifdef AIX' are there in the source code for gnu-emacs? X11R4?

	This depends on the type of code. How big you are at present etc.

Geoff Coleman
Unexsys Systems

> 
> 	Thanks,
> 
> 		Scott