Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu!bob
From: bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Mach, Unix, and NeXT
Summary: it's in deah
Message-ID: <24898@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 18 Oct 88 14:23:16 GMT
References: <73275@sun.uucp>
Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer & Information Science
Lines: 35

In article <73275@sun.uucp> swilson@sun.UUCP (Scott Wilson) writes:
>What is the scope of Mach?  Is it just the kernel, or does it
>include utilites as well?

Mach on a VAX is 4.3BSD binary compatible.  You can run your 4.3BSD
VAX binaries on a Mach VAX.  The entire 4.3 environment is on any
machine running Mach.  Could they survive in a University with
anything less?

>Does NeXT have all the Unix stuff we've come to know and love like
>cp, mv, find, ls, etc?  If utilities aren't in the scope of Mach,
>where did the NeXT versions come from?  What about the more esoteric
>utilities like lex and yacc?

The rest of the environment is all there too.  It's compatible at the
system-call level with BSD4.3.  All the 4.3 user level utilities are
there.  All the system administration utilities (rdump, etc.) are
there.  All your favorite daemons (OK, so maybe named isn't one of
Sun's favorite daemons :-) (sorry - cheap shot) are there, as is
inetd.  It runs sendmail or anything else you care to configure,
though I'm not sure of the genealogy of their voice mailer.

To a user or programmer, Mach is 4.3BSD.  We're running Mach on a
Butterfly and a Multimax, and we treat them as simply another 4.3
machine.  In fact, they're the most purely 4.3-like of any box we've
got, because all the other vendors are working hard on their
particular way of mixing in SysV-isms.  That's not a bad thing, but
sometimes you just really need a 4.3 machine.

If you happen to find a 4.3 utility that isn't there, just take the
source directly from your 4.3 distribution tape and compile it.  No
muss, no fuss, no bother.
-=-
Zippy sez,								--Bob
All of life is a blur of Republicans and meat!