Robert Hailman wrote:
>
> This is a bit like my Linux/Xenix question earlier, but I'm new, so don't
> laugh. I have heard of Linux apps, and I have heard of Unix apps, as well as
> Minix apps, Posix apps, Xenix apps, etc... But my question is... If I
> download a plain UNIX app of the 'net, will it run on Linux?
> /-------------------+---------------------------\
> | Robert Hailman | Stupidity is Win95, |
> | | Stupidity is 0S/2, |
> |[EMAIL PROTECTED]|Stupidity is Linux on a 386|
> \-------------------+---------------------------/
A Posix compliant app, for instance, should run on any Posix compliant
Unix, if compiled on the target platform. I have never seen what you
refer to as a "Unix" app, unless you are really refering to scripts.
Applications, are, by and large, compiled on a particular OS for a
particular processor. Some may be interpreted scripts in shell
language, sed, awk, Perl, etc. These scripts should run in the shell
they are wriiten for regardless of platform or brand of Unix. But, even
in the case of scripts, there are subtle differences in the shells
between Unix, such that, what is legal in the shell of one OS may not be
legal in the shell of the other.
So, in summation, if you are talking about scripts, you can download a
script for Bourne or C shells of any of the variants of Unix you have
mentioned and they should run on each platform. A compiled applicaiton
will never run on those variants unless, either, one, the application
has a runtime complie for the platform and OS, or has several binary
formats that fit the various platforms.
Paul Anderson
--
"Good morning, doctors. I have taken the liberty of removing
Windows 95 from my hard drive."
Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001:A Space Odyssey, on the first words
he would have liked HAL, his fictional computer, to speak
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