Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request From: hplabs!burdick@hpindda.hp.com (Matt Burdick) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Re: Summary of how well HP and SUNs work together Message-ID: <4400001@hpindda.HP.COM> Date: 22 Feb 89 12:59:19 GMT References: <1224@mmm.UUCP> Sender: usenet@rice.edu Organization: HP Information Networks, Cupertino, CA Lines: 81 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu Original-Date: 10 Feb 89 17:24:48 GMT X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 164, message 9 of 9 Since the summary that I am reponding to has some inconsistencies in it, I thought I'd try to clear some things up. All the information I post here applies to the most recent versions of HP-UX. Earlier versions may be different. Also, I have not commented on all of the possible subjects - only the areas in which I know something about. Cartridge tapes: The format for the cartridge tapes for HP's series 300 workstations are not compatible with SUN's. HP's format is based on a 3M standard. Operating System: HP's HP-UX is entirely compliant with System V R2, but the networking code is Berkeley 4.2-based. HP is also adding functionality from 4.3 BSD when possible. Many Berkeley library functions are available in /usr/lib/libBSD.a for compatibility. SUN's Sun-OS is Berkeley 4.3-based. Job control (SIGSTOP, SIGCONT, ...) is supported on HP's series 800 machines, but not on the 300 series (at least up to HP-UX 6.2). HP-UX 6.5 (coming out Real Soon Now) will have job control. File System: SUN's file system supports long file names (255 character names) only. HP-UX supports both long and short file names (14 character names). Short file names are supported because some applications do not expect file names to be any longer than 14 characters. The catch is that once you convert a file system from short file names to long file names, it isn't possible to reverse the process. NFS does work between the two systems, but HP doesn't support version 4, which means that you can't export subdirectories - only file systems. Also, it is not generally possible to grant root access to an exported file system. The hack below, however, will allow this, since it patches the kernel to change the uid of 'nobody' to 0 rather than -2. Note that this patches the bits in the /hp-ux file rather than the running kernel. Therefore, to use it you must reboot the system: #!/bin/sh /bin/adb -w /hp-ux <<-"END_SEMI_CLUSTER" nobody?W 0 END_SEMI_CLUSTER Networking: HP-UX systems allow either IEEE 802.3 or Ethernet packets on the LAN. Executable programs: These cannot be shared between HP and SUN workstations. Terminal support: HP-UX uses terminfo while SUN uses termcap. Printer support: HP-UX uses 'lp' rather than Berkeley's 'lpr'. However, 'lp' does connect to 'lpr' in such a way that the two work together transparently (a SUN can print to a printer on an HP-UX system and vice-versa). For purists, there is an 'lpr' script that is a wrapper around 'lp' that can be used (I'm not sure if it's shipped with HP-UX or not, though). I hope this helps to clear things up a bit. -matt Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are my own, and not those of my employer (or perhaps any rational being). Matt Burdick | Hewlett-Packard burdick%hpda@hplabs.hp.com | Technical Communications Lab