Date: 17 Nov 2002 14:18:06 -0800 From: swear@attbi.com (Gary W. Swearingen) To: FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: what does "open source" mean ? Message-ID: <s7zns7den5.ns7@localhost.localdomain> In-Reply-To: <3DD6ADA6.9040106@wanadoo.fr> References: <20021116010252.97C8937B404@hub.freebsd.org> <3DD6ADA6.9040106@wanadoo.fr>
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hymette@wanadoo.fr writes: > it's a pretty basic question I'm asking but I'd like to learn more about > FreeBSD and Unix systems. There are several definitions of "open source". Assuming understanding of the word "source", I like "software for which the source code is available for reading at no cost beyond communication costs. It is almost always proprietary, requiring payments of licensing fees or other considerations for certain uses or being restricted from certain uses altogether. It almost always may be republished as-is without payment. Many people (often those who write it as "Open Source") like to add the proviso that the source be licensed for execution (after translation), derivation, and publishing of derivatives, for no payment other than the cross-licensing of the deriver's copyrights under similar terms. Not all Unix systems are open source. IBM and HP (and some others ) are still supporting their Unix systems, but I think they're hoping to phase them out. Sun Microsystems is the main player, these days. > For example I couldn't find how to recompile > just one part of the base system (say ee for instance). I install the complete sources (using "cvsup" as documented in the FreeBSD Handbook), then find the directory with the source code ( eg, "locate -i ee.c" found it in /usr/src/usr.bin/ee/), enter that directory, change the code, and run "make". IIRC, it may be then be installed with "make install". > Also when > looking at the libraries I see lots of different suffixes which do not > evoque anything to me (what are .so, .h, files and so on). I'm afraid you'll just have to pick them up as you go or ask about a few at a time. ".so" is "Shared Object (code libary)" (like DLL?); ".h" is "include" header files for C/C++ code; > That is the > architecture of the system, how each and every part stick on the whole ? > Could anyone tell me where to find information (readable for non > specialist) about this kind of questions - implying more than howto > knowledge? Any WWW searcher will find lots of info at all levels; here's one intro http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/unix.html Be sure to spend a few hours exploring www.freebsd.org if you're going to try FreeBSD. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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