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From: sirkm@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Greg Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard,comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: HyperUnix 1.4.0:  Mail and Unix services from HyperCard
Message-ID: <9070@saturn.ucsc.edu>
Date: 11 Sep 89 17:01:06 GMT
References: <9034@saturn.ucsc.edu> <485@cpdaux.UUCP>
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard,comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: HyperUnix 1.4.0:  Mail and Unix services from HyperCard
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References: <9034@saturn.ucsc.edu> <485@cpdaux.UUCP>
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In article <485@cpdaux.UUCP> cpdaux!steve@apple.com (Steve Lemke) writes:
>Could you or someone else possibly explain what exactly this does?  What is
>an AUFS interface?

Very good question (no, the answer is not obvious).  Are you familiar with
AUFS, the Apple/Unix file server that works with CAP (the Columbia AppleTalk
Package)?  AUFS allows a macintosh to store files on a Unix machine.

HyperUnix's "AUFS interface" uses AUFS to 'talk' to Unix.  When the Macintosh
wishes to execute a bourne shell script, it writes the script to a file
on the AUFS volume.  Unix processes can also see this file, and in fact
there is a background task (the 'automac daemons') that watches for this
file (called 'sh.input') to appear.  When the daemon sees sh.input has
been written, it pipes the file through the bourne shell and redirects
the output to another file (called 'stdout').  The mac can then read
the output from the shell script by reading this file.

I was not the first to use this method; it was described quite some time
ago in comp.protocols.appletalk.  I unfortunately do not know who came up
with this idea.

>If I have a Mac II running A/UX connected to other Macs
>via Ethernet, would HyperUnix do anything interesting for me?

Yes, HyperUnix will work with A/UX.  The other Macs won't be able to
use HyperUnix unless they can read and write files on the A/UX machine.
The automac daemons may need to be changed slightly.  Also, HyperUnix
uses Bourne shell scripts on a BSD machine; system-V machines may have
minor incompatibilities.  A/UX is enough like BSD that HyperUnix may
be used almost as-is.  The only change I know of is you need to change
the mail path from /usr/spool/mail/ to whatever path your system
saves its mail in.  (There's a field in HyperUnix's home stack that
contains this information.)

>Don't mean to sound stupid...

You don't; the term 'AUFS interface' is rather vague.  I should probably
re-explain the entire project every time I post an update.

>----- Steve Lemke ------------------- "MS-DOS (OS/2, etc.) - just say no!"
  ___\    /___               Greg Anderson              ___\    /___ 
  \   \  /   /         Social Sciences Computing        \   \  /   /
   \  /\/\  /    University of California, Santa Cruz    \  /\/\  /
    \/    \/              sirkm@ssyx.ucsc.edu             \/    \/