Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 14:55:28 +0100 (MET) From: grog@lemis.de (Greg Lehey) To: terry@lambert.org (Terry Lambert) Cc: hackers@freebsd.org (FreeBSD Hackers) Subject: Re: Where is the documentation for ibcs2? Message-ID: <199511261355.OAA13704@allegro.lemis.de> In-Reply-To: <199511241913.MAA10123@phaeton.artisoft.com> from "Terry Lambert" at Nov 24, 95 12:13:31 pm
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Terry Lambert writes:
>
>>> Installation is in the man page.
>>
>> I think I need to reformulate my question:
>>
>> What is the name of the man page for ibcs2?
>
> There isn't one. There doesn't need to be one.
I strongly disagree. BSDI has found the need to write two separate
man pages (ibcs2(5) and sco(1)), and the information contained there
is very useful. At the very least, you need to tell people how to
enable it (yes, I did know about the entry in /etc/sysconfig; that's
where I came in), and how to run a COFF executable, even if it's
trivial.
> I think I need to
> rephrase my answer:
>
> You use "modload", whose man page is "modload(8)" to load it. You
> don't have any other options regarding IBCS2: you only have the option
> of loading it or not loading it.
Options aren't the only think to document. How about limitations and
bugs? How do I know how to enable the emulation? How do I run the
program? Just start it by name? Do I need to say "ibcs2 vi", or will
it be enough just to write "vi"? I tried vi with the SCO version and
got:
=== root@freebie (/dev/ttyp0) /allegro/usr/sco/usr/bin 16 -> ./vi
Abort trap
=== root@freebie (/dev/ttyp0) /allegro/usr/sco/usr/bin 17 -> ibcs2 vi
modload: error initializing module: File exists
Well, it appears that I need to run it as "ibcs2 vi". But what's this
modload problem? I have enabled Or have I done it wrong after all?
I'm an experienced computer person, and quite honestly the lack of
documentation (coupled, admittedly, with a lack of interest in SCO
software) is enough that I'm prepared to give up. Who is going to use
this stuff if they run into trouble and can't even be certain they've
started it properly. How does it work? How do I go about finding out
what's wrong here?
> Typically, you don't document things that don't have parameters, options,
> or other controls.
Speak for yourself. From my point of view, this is completely wrong.
> Things like IBCS2 are binary: they either are or
> are not loaded.
>
> If you don't want to load it as a module (why not? It's an easy thing
> to do), then you can statically compile it. Look at /sys/i386/conf/LINT,
> at the bottom of the file:
I can't see any reason not to load the module either.
> # More undocumented options for linting.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
> options COMPAT_LINUX
> options "IBCS2"
Oh well. I had already documented these ones.
Greg
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