Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 16:25:35 -0800 (PST) From: dan@math.berkeley.edu (Dan Strick) To: nate@mt.sri.com Cc: dan@math.berkeley.edu, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: linux software installation and uname Message-ID: <199811100025.QAA04722@math.berkeley.edu>
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> No, but in order to get the 'correct' behavior, I have to know which OS > I need emulated so I can set the environment variable correctly. > > So, if I want to run SCO's Informix which uses uname (it does, BTW), I > have to set 'ALT_UNAME' to "SCO". Then, I want to run StarOffice, so I > have set 'ALT_UNAME' to "Linux", then I want to run the JDK, so I have > to set 'ALT_UNAME' to "Solaris", or was it the Linux version that I was > running? I don't remember if it was the Solaris version, or the Linux > version? > > The point is that it's *NOT* transparent to the users, so the solution > isn't any better than the initial problem, but it adds more bloat and > more 'magic' solutions that are no better than editing shells scripts. So you wrap a small shell script around certain commands that require special things in their environment. This has been an occasional necessity for years. For example, my netscape wrapper contains: ... setenv CLASSPATH "$N"/java* setenv XKEYSYMDB "$N"/XKeysymDB setenv XNLSPATH "$N"/nls setenv MOZILLA_HOME "$N" setenv MAILCAP /usr/local/misc/lib/netscape/mailcap setenv MIME_TYPES /usr/local/misc/lib/netscape/mime_types setenv NPX_PLUGIN_PATH /usr/local/misc/lib/netscape/plugins ... exec /usr/bin/nice -4 "$N/$X" $* and I have generic wrappers for several different versions of X11, each of which likes a different executable search path, manual path, library path, and I forget what else. Life is complicated. We have to live with it. (Though sometimes I consider going back in time and strangling the people who would eventually invent and implement X before they could grow up and commit such an artistic barbarism. This approach might actually be more likely to succeed.) Dan Strick dan@math.berkeley.edu To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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