Re: glibc vs BSD libc

[Pavel Cahyna <pcah8322@artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz>]

Hello,

> the compat packages exist to provide missing libraries.  the netbsd
> libc "soname" has never changed -- it was libc.so.12 when the first
> ELF port arrived, and it is libc.so.12 today.  of course you can not

So the ABI for libc didn't change since the introduction of ELF and
no compat librairies for ELF programs are not needed? This is new to me and
if is is so, it's very good!

> ps(1) from netbsd 1.5 and above will work.  programs like netstat and
> other "kmem"/"libkvm" grovellers may or may not work.  it all depends
> on the relevant kernel structures not changing (too much?)  kmem grovellers

Yes, I expected this...

> do not count as "portable programs" -- they do not use published API's to
> gather info, but assume a particular format about how the kernel stores
> things.  netbsd has been moving away from kmem grovellers in a big way
> for two main reasons:  the binary compat issue, and, most kmem grovellers
> are set-id to group kmem.  removing both of these issues *is* a goal, but

This is very good too! What is used instead of kmem, is it sysctl?

> 
> does this clear it all up?   [sorry for being so verbose]

Thank you! Verbosity is a good thing.

Bye	Pavel