From ram at rkrishnan.org  Sun May  1 11:28:56 2016
From: ram at rkrishnan.org (Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan)
Date: Sun, 01 May 2016 06:58:56 +0530
Subject: [TUHS] Portals in 4.4 BSD
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.2.11.1604291108210.12603@grey.csi.cam.ac.uk>
References: <1461920291.2703061.593186393.3DD04F16@webmail.messagingengine.com>
 <alpine.DEB.2.11.1604291108210.12603@grey.csi.cam.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <1462066136.2653464.594540825.0AB37B4D@webmail.messagingengine.com>

On Fri, Apr 29, 2016, at 04:45 PM, Tony Finch wrote:
> Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan <ram at rkrishnan.org> wrote:
> >
> > I read with a lot of interest, an old Usenix paper by the late Richard
> > Stevens on a system called "Portals": [...]
> > Wondering if this survived in any existing, so called "modern" Unix.
> 
> A descendent of the original code is still present in DragonFlyBSD:
> 
> http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/sys/vfs/portal
> http://gitweb.dragonflybsd.org/dragonfly.git/tree/HEAD:/sbin/mount_portal
> 
> The facility still exists in NetBSD but it has been reimplemented on top
> of puffs, the Pass-to-Userspace Framework File System development
> interface.
> 
> http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?mount_portal
> 
> It survived in FreeBSD for a long time, but eventually was removed in
> 2012
> rather than being made multiprocessor-safe.
> 
> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/commit/efcca33ac515c354e18135425794400ea32406a8
> 
> It also got removed from OpenBSD in 2011.
> 
> http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sbin/mount_portal/Attic/mount_portal.8

Thanks a lot, Tony. Looks like Portal is alive, at least in some of the
BSD variants. I will try these out.

-- 
  Ramakrishnan


From arnold at skeeve.com  Mon May  2 13:44:10 2016
From: arnold at skeeve.com (Aharon Robbins)
Date: Mon, 02 May 2016 06:44:10 +0300
Subject: [TUHS] interesting but long article on Dave Cutler,
	of VMS and NT fame
Message-ID: <201605020344.u423iA4p012452@skeeve.com>

https://news.microsoft.com/features/the-engineers-engineer-computer-industry-luminaries-salute-dave-cutlers-five-decade-long-quest-for-quality/#sm.00000ni2wngtehe9rwkwmhfhom6ny

Some of the statements about him seem exaggerated, but that's not
surprising.  Anyone who's read "Showstopper!" will have a different
picture of him than what's painted here.

Arnold


From cowan at mercury.ccil.org  Tue May  3 00:25:48 2016
From: cowan at mercury.ccil.org (John Cowan)
Date: Mon, 2 May 2016 10:25:48 -0400
Subject: [TUHS] interesting but long article on Dave Cutler,
 of VMS and NT fame
In-Reply-To: <201605020344.u423iA4p012452@skeeve.com>
References: <201605020344.u423iA4p012452@skeeve.com>
Message-ID: <20160502142548.GE29513@mercury.ccil.org>

Aharon Robbins scripsit:

> Some of the statements about him seem exaggerated, but that's not
> surprising.  Anyone who's read "Showstopper!" will have a different
> picture of him than what's painted here.

After all, it's a Microsoft press release.  The reality distortion field
is in full operation.

-- 
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
Even a refrigerator can conform to the XML Infoset, as long as it has
a door sticker saying "No information items inside".  --Eve Maler


From wkt at tuhs.org  Tue May  3 17:21:55 2016
From: wkt at tuhs.org (Warren Toomey)
Date: Tue, 3 May 2016 17:21:55 +1000
Subject: [TUHS] PDP-7 Unix Progress
Message-ID: <20160503072155.GA28307@minnie.tuhs.org>

All, a status update on the PDP-7 Unix restoration project at
https://github.com/DoctorWkt/pdp7-unix

The system is pretty much complete now. We have as much of the original
code working as we can. We have rewritten things like the shell and some
other utilities (ls etc.). The ed editor and the native assembler both
work. We also have written a user-mode PDP-7 simulator to test things
and an assembler to make building things faster.

The system boots up under SimH with a filesystem and you can see what things
were like back in 1970.

One big missing utility is roff. As of today, I've written a compiler that
inputs a vaguely C-like language and outputs PDP-7 code. Using this, I've
compiled a minimalist roff which is enough to format man pages. This is
a separate project here: https://github.com/DoctorWkt/h-compiler

Now we are hoping to get the Living Computer Museum people to bring it up
on their real PDP-7. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a disk drive. The
expected solution is to build a disk simulator with an FPGA and SD card.
There is no time frame for this, but it is in the works.

Thanks go to Phil Budne and Robert Swierczek for all their hard work
in building and testing things, and also to Norman Wilson for supplying
scans of the original documents.

Cheers, Warren


From wkt at tuhs.org  Wed May  4 12:12:40 2016
From: wkt at tuhs.org (Warren Toomey)
Date: Wed, 4 May 2016 12:12:40 +1000
Subject: [TUHS] PDP-7 Unix Progress
In-Reply-To: <57291BAF.6020507@aueb.gr>
References: <20160503072155.GA28307@minnie.tuhs.org> <57291BAF.6020507@aueb.gr>
Message-ID: <20160504021240.GA29896@minnie.tuhs.org>

On Wed, May 04, 2016 at 12:44:15AM +0300, Diomidis Spinellis wrote:
> This would have found any code from the PDP-7 Unix that appeared in the
> First Edition.  (I was hoping that some PDP-7 instruction sequences might be
> the same in PDP-11.)
> Unsurprisingly, nothing came out.

No, the instruction set is completely different. The PDP-11 ISA is a paradise
compared to the spartan PDP-7 ISA.

Cheers, Warren


From doug at cs.dartmouth.edu  Wed May  4 12:28:03 2016
From: doug at cs.dartmouth.edu (Doug McIlroy)
Date: Tue, 03 May 2016 22:28:03 -0400
Subject: [TUHS] PDP-7 Unix Progress
Message-ID: <201605040228.u442S37b013394@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>

> Now we are hoping to  get the Living Computer Museum people to bring it up
on their real PDP-7. 

Truly a fantastic prospect! The only Unix the museum has running is
on a 3B2--a curious byway perhaps, but of little historic interest.
The PDP-7 version would be a tremendous coup.

doug


From grog at lemis.com  Wed May  4 12:42:39 2016
From: grog at lemis.com (Greg 'groggy' Lehey)
Date: Wed, 4 May 2016 12:42:39 +1000
Subject: [TUHS] PDP-7 Unix Progress
In-Reply-To: <20160504021240.GA29896@minnie.tuhs.org>
References: <20160503072155.GA28307@minnie.tuhs.org> <57291BAF.6020507@aueb.gr>
 <20160504021240.GA29896@minnie.tuhs.org>
Message-ID: <20160504024239.GI15924@eureka.lemis.com>

On Wednesday,  4 May 2016 at 12:12:40 +1000, Warren Toomey wrote:
> On Wed, May 04, 2016 at 12:44:15AM +0300, Diomidis Spinellis wrote:
>> This would have found any code from the PDP-7 Unix that appeared in the
>> First Edition.  (I was hoping that some PDP-7 instruction sequences might be
>> the same in PDP-11.)
>> Unsurprisingly, nothing came out.
>
> No, the instruction set is completely different. The PDP-11 ISA is a
> paradise compared to the spartan PDP-7 ISA.

In case you're interested, I've located a reference manual at
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/pdp7/F-75P_PDP7prelimUM_Dec64.pdf

The instruction set is very reminiscent of the PDP-8, including the
"operate" class "microcodding" instructions (starting with 7) and
autoindexing via indirect access to locations 10 to 17.  Even the
mnemonics and the assembler syntax are very similar to the -8.

Certainly the PDP-11 is an improvement, but there's something
nostalgic about the -7 instruction set.

Greg
--
Sent from my desktop computer.
Finger grog at FreeBSD.org for PGP public key.
See complete headers for address and phone numbers.
This message is digitally signed.  If your Microsoft mail program
reports problems, please read http://lemis.com/broken-MUA
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From lm at mcvoy.com  Wed May  4 12:44:46 2016
From: lm at mcvoy.com (Larry McVoy)
Date: Tue, 3 May 2016 19:44:46 -0700
Subject: [TUHS] PDP-7 Unix Progress
In-Reply-To: <20160504024239.GI15924@eureka.lemis.com>
References: <20160503072155.GA28307@minnie.tuhs.org> <57291BAF.6020507@aueb.gr>
 <20160504021240.GA29896@minnie.tuhs.org>
 <20160504024239.GI15924@eureka.lemis.com>
Message-ID: <20160504024446.GA23269@mcvoy.com>

> Certainly the PDP-11 is an improvement, but there's something
> nostalgic about the -7 instruction set.

Umm, as a dude that assembly after the PDP-11 I just yearn for something
as pleasant as PDP-11.


From pechter at gmail.com  Wed May  4 13:59:09 2016
From: pechter at gmail.com (William Pechter)
Date: Tue, 3 May 2016 23:59:09 -0400
Subject: [TUHS] PDP-7 Unix Progress
In-Reply-To: <201605040228.u442S37b013394@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
References: <201605040228.u442S37b013394@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
Message-ID: <5729738D.9000904@gmail.com>

Doug McIlroy wrote:
>> Now we are hoping to  get the Living Computer Museum people to bring it up
> on their real PDP-7.
>
> Truly a fantastic prospect! The only Unix the museum has running is
> on a 3B2--a curious byway perhaps, but of little historic interest.
> The PDP-7 version would be a tremendous coup.
>
> doug

Actually, they have a V7 or 2.xBSD on an 11/70 which used to be the 
Microsoft Corporate Email Server...

My kid was playing Hangman on it when we were there last year.

My idea of a perfect job would be to work in a museum like that as a 
tour guide...

Bill

-- 
Digital had it then.  Don't you wish you could buy it now!
pechter-at-gmail.com  http://xkcd.com/705/



From doug at cs.dartmouth.edu  Tue May 31 17:27:43 2016
From: doug at cs.dartmouth.edu (Doug McIlroy)
Date: Tue, 31 May 2016 03:27:43 -0400
Subject: [TUHS] etymology of read -u
Message-ID: <201605310727.u4V7Rhmp030422@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>

What's the mnmonic significance, if any, of the u in
the bash builtin read -u for reading from a specified
file descriptor? Evidently both f and d had already been
taken in analogy to usage in some other commands.

The best I can think of is u as in "tape unit", which
was common usage back in the days of READ INPUT TAPE 5.
That would make it the work of an old timer, maybe Dave Korn?



From chet.ramey at case.edu  Tue May 31 22:55:34 2016
From: chet.ramey at case.edu (Chet Ramey)
Date: Tue, 31 May 2016 08:55:34 -0400
Subject: [TUHS] etymology of read -u
In-Reply-To: <201605310727.u4V7Rhmp030422@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
References: <201605310727.u4V7Rhmp030422@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
Message-ID: <d1314ee2-e182-2157-7781-2d7eed4b3127@case.edu>

On 5/31/16 3:27 AM, Doug McIlroy wrote:
> What's the mnmonic significance, if any, of the u in
> the bash builtin read -u for reading from a specified
> file descriptor? Evidently both f and d had already been
> taken in analogy to usage in some other commands.
> 
> The best I can think of is u as in "tape unit", which
> was common usage back in the days of READ INPUT TAPE 5.
> That would make it the work of an old timer, maybe Dave Korn?

I picked it up from ksh many years ago, and assumed at the time that it
meant `unit'.

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
		 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet at case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/


