Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!minya!jc
From: jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Unix vs. OS/2 (was RE: Pournelle on Unix)
Summary: It does so....
Message-ID: <448@minya.UUCP>
Date: 1 Aug 88 12:16:09 GMT
References: <11156@brl-adm.ARPA>
Organization: home
Lines: 45

In article <11156@brl-adm.ARPA>, GUTHERY%ASC%sdr.slb.com@RELAY.CS.NET (guthery%asc@sdr.slb.com) writes:
> 1) Here are some O/S goodies that stock OS/2 (now playing on my desk)
> has that stock Unix (also playing on my desk) doesn't have:
> 	...
> 	- systemwide semaphores
>	... 

I'll let the other wizards hack apart the rest of the items on 
the list; I'll just point out that every Unix I've ever seen has 
systemwide semaphores.  They just aren't called that.  Try:
	if ((l = creat("/usr/spool/locks/<somename>",0)) {
		...
		[Critical section]
		...
		unlink("/usr/spool/locks/<somename>");
	} else {
		[Didn't get semaphore]
	}
It worked on BRL Version 6, and it still works, even on SunOS.

> 3) Kernel hacking is not research.  A Unix wizard who doesn't know what
> SIGOPS is loses five hit points.  Do the wizards sense extinction?

Nah, as long as vendors keep delivering systems with such pieces
of cruft as sendmail, vi/emacs, NFS, and the threatened OSI stuff,
our income is secure.  It's even better than OS/360 was:  It's
even fun to work with. (:-)

Kernel hacking CAN qualify as research.  I've spent many happy
hours trying to come up with reliable ways of automating the
diagnosis of problems; some of the most effective ways involve
getting into the kernel and inserting some spies that write to
audit files.  I mean, there's lots of systematic, understood
methodology for dealing with computational and communication
processing; there is very little for dealing with when things
don't work right.  About all we have are ad-hoc, after-the-fact
tools.  There's a real need for intelligent, systematic tools
for the job, especially now that we are getting into the mass
confusion called "networking".

[BTW, the signal(2) in my manual here doesn't seem to include
SIGOPS; what version of Unix are you running on? :-]

-- 
John Chambers <{adelie,ima,maynard,mit-eddie}!minya!{jc,root}> (617/484-6393)