Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!mit-amt!snorkelwacker!spdcc!ima!haddock!trb
From: trb@haddock.ima.isc.com (Andrew Tannenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: Taking risks on software (ISC)
Keywords: unix dos vpix
Message-ID: <15321@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Date: 1 Dec 89 19:12:36 GMT
References: <240@hdchq.UUCP> <1989Nov30.135631.12796@virtech.uucp> <[2575a8ad:160.11]comp.unix.i386;1@nstar.UUCP>
Reply-To: trb@haddock.ima.isc.com (Andrew Tannenbaum)
Organization: Interactive Systems, Cambridge, MA 02138-5302
Lines: 29

These are my impressions as an ISC employee and 386/ix user.  They're not
ISC policy.

As far as I know, the /etc/shadow problems with rlogin were cleared up
in 2.0.2, which has been available for many months.  Complaining about
our Interlan support isn't quite fair, since I'm pretty sure that
Interlan handles it themselves, we don't.  (This was the last I heard
on Interlan support, anyway - I assume we're talking about board-based
NP600 ethernet, right?)

In article <[2575a8ad:160.11]comp.unix.i386;1@nstar.UUCP> akcs.larry@nstar.UUCP (Larry Snyder) writes:
> How has the file system managed with complete un-attended power downs?  Try
> pulling the plug a couple of times and see what happens.  I've lost the
> power a couple of times to this machine (running SCO) and have NEVER lost a
> file let alone the ability to boot the machine (which was the case SEVERAL
> times when running ISC 2.02).

(Assuming robust hardware) I have never had or seen any problems with
our ability to come back after shutting off the power with the system
running.  It boots, fscks (rebuilding the free list, which we keep in
a bitmap) and runs multi-user.  In a Sys V file system, files open with
output in progress will end up in lost+found.  I don't see how you can
avoid that.

If you are talking about "pulling the plug a couple of times," perhaps
you are describing a hardware problem - I don't see what this has to do
with 386/ix.

	Andrew Tannenbaum   Interactive   Cambridge, MA   +1 617 661 7474