Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!apple!epimass!jbuck
From: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: running VAX-unix binaries under VAX-vms
Summary: Eunice can do the job in some cases
Keywords: vax bsd vms
Message-ID: <2990@epimass.EPI.COM>
Date: 22 Mar 89 01:36:16 GMT
References: <621@asuvax.asu.edu> <54309@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Reply-To: jbuck@epimass.EPI.COM (Joe Buck)
Organization: Entropic Processing, Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 31

In article <54309@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> spolsky-joel@CS.YALE.EDU (Joel Spolsky) writes:
>In article <621@asuvax.asu.edu> system@asuvax.asu.edu (Marc Lesure) writes:
>>Is it possible to take a binary from a VAX running 4.3bsd and
>>get it to run on a VAX running VMS?  If so, how?

>No. The OS calls are not compatible. Forget it, or write a
>Unix-emulator on top of VMS, which is probably theoretically
>impossible. 

One way to demonstrate that something is not theoretically impossible
is to do it. :-)

You can obtain a product named Eunice from The Wollongong Group, which
is precisely a Unix-emulator on top of VMS.  There is even a newsgroup
for it, comp.os.eunice.  It can run at least some bsd Vax binaries
unchanged; I am uncertain what all the restrictions are (for example,
hard links don't work, and a few annoying things are subtly different,
but it's quite remarkable how well it works).

TWG also provides TCP/IP and NFS for VAX/VMS.  I have no connection
with them other than as a former customer.  Older versions of Eunice
were really horrible (I know: I wrote the Eunice code for 2.11 news),
but from the 4.3 version on it's amazing what a complete emulation of
4.3bsd you get.

(By the way, those things in Larry Wall's Configure scripts that talk
about Eunice: they don't work.  Sorry, Larry).


-- 
-- Joe Buck	jbuck@epimass.epi.com, uunet!epimass.epi.com!jbuck