UNIX KERNEL SOURCE CODE ??

Barry Shein bzs at world.std.com
Tue Dec 25 18:26:08 AEST 1990


>	Can anybody tell me where I can get a copy of the UNIX Kernel
>Source Code ?  I know that it is copyrighted, but can I get a "student
>copy" for a nominal price ?  It is purely for educational purposes.

Please post the code to the list!



Seriously, you need a license executed by your institution for a copy
of real (tm) Unix. Someone from your organization calls AT&T (USL?)
and gets forms to fill out and pays a fee. Tapes will follow after
your organization's lawyers express their nervousness over it all.

You should ask around, there's a good chance your organization owns
one of these licenses.

For Berkeley code you then contact UCB/CSRG for another license, with
your AT&T license (with another fee, tho much smaller), and they'll
send you their version.

For your vendors you'll have to contact them, but the AT&T license is
still a pre-requisite (but check to make sure your vendor will even
sell you the code, you'll need a copy from them if you really want to
modify and run it, not all vendors will part with their code I assume,
tho many will.)

There's also free or almost free Unix-like kernels available. Minix is
a Unix-clone which is available (Prentice-Hall?) for a small fee. And
it can be shared among students somewhat last I looked.

Much of the BSD ATT-free kernel code is becoming available for FTP
from various archives. There seems to be enough there already to get a
good understanding of how the (a) kernel works.

There are certainly others which other people will mention.
-- 
        -Barry Shein

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