Which 386 UNIX binaries run on which 386 UNIXs ?

[Conor P. Cahill]

In article <1990Sep3.095529.29411 at brolga.cc.uq.oz.au> exnirad at brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (Nirad Sharma) writes:
>I am running SCO XENIX 2.3.2 ('386 version) and am wondering if some binaries
>from an ESIX system will run on my system, more specifically gcc, emacs and
>X11R4 as found at 36.102.0.32 (I got the site from an article posted here).

Xenix is supposed to be able to run 386 UNIX binaries starting with 2.3.

That means that gcc and emacs should run without any problems.  However,
the X11R4 stuff you found probably has some kernel modifications and/or
kernel specific code that will not run under xenix.  Note that I used the
word probably.  I haven't tried it but I do not expect it to work.

>Furthermore, could someone please explain whose binaries run on whose 386-UNIXs?

286 & 386 Coff binaries will compile under all 386 Unix systems (ESIX,
Interactive, SCO UNIX, Intel UNIX, etc) and SCO Xenix >= 2.3.  

286 & 386 Xenix binaries will run under all 386 Unix systems that are
based upon At&t unix >= 3.2.  This includes all ESIX releases, Interactive
Unix releases >= 2.0, all Sco Unix releases, Intel/Bell Tech Unix
releases >= 3.2.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While the binaries will execute, the code may call some 
system specific routines (especially if they do wierd stuff with the 
console keyboard or display) or may expect some system specific files to 
be in a different place.  This means that while they will execute, they 
may not work.

2ND IMPORTANT NOTE: While you can run Xenix executables on UNIX and
vice-versa, you cannot use the standard debugging tools to view core
files generated from executables for the other system.  You will also
have a problem reading Xenix libraries on Unix systems and probably 
vice-versa.  By "reading" I mean using them to link with a program.  This
important note does not apply to SCO UNIX, since it has the Xenix compiler
and development tools.


-- 
Conor P. Cahill            (703)430-9247        Virtual Technologies, Inc.,
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