Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!eclam
From: ec...@maytag.waterloo.edu (Edmund C. Lam)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: bug in Dynix C compiler.
Message-ID: <ECLAM.89Jan3081428@maytag.waterloo.edu>
Date: 3 Jan 89 13:14:28 GMT
Sender: dae...@watmath.waterloo.edu
Distribution: comp
Organization: Math Faculty Computing Facility, University of Waterloo
Lines: 28
I found a C compiler bug in the balance C compiler. We don't have software
support, but here is the bug warning for anyone listening.
Dynix V3.0.12 Oct 5/88.
Category: Software
System Type: Balance
Id: 51079 24576 /bin/cc (Feb 6/88)
Description:
The following structure definition causes /bin/cc to complain about a
C syntax error:
struct foo {
int private;
};
The bug is triggered by the keyword "private" inside a structure
declaration. Using "private" outside a structure is fine.
This bug was found while building XV11R3 (xdm client).
The easy solution is to change declarations of "private" to something else.
BTW:
Does anyone know sequent's bug report mail address? I just want to make
/usr/bin/mailbug work. Thanks.
--
-Edmund C. Lam (University of Waterloo)
<ec...@maytag.waterloo.edu>
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tektronix!sequent!ianj
From: i...@sequent.UUCP (Bruce)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: bug in Dynix C compiler.
Message-ID: <9927@sequent.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jan 89 01:55:48 GMT
References: <ECLAM.89Jan3081428@maytag.waterloo.edu> <8571@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: i...@crg2.UUCP (Bruce)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc
Lines: 11
Dynix 3.0.12 is latest Symmetry Release.
Dynix 3.0.14 is latest Balance Release.
To report problems via 'mailbug' you should add "pts:uunet!sequent!pts"
to /usr/lib/aliases, or call Sequent Service (800-854-9969) to get a
direct connect if you have a Service Contract.
--
Ian Johnstone uunet!sequent!ianj
Sequent Computer Systems
Beaverton, Oregon
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!pacbell!sactoh0!caanders
From: caand...@sactoh0.UUCP (Chris A. Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Sequent S81 running Dynix
Message-ID: <723@sactoh0.UUCP>
Date: 7 Mar 89 01:36:02 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Sacramento Public Access, Ca. USA
Lines: 24
Hello,
My company is considering the purchase of a fairly large (to me,
anyway) computer in the near future. One of the systems under
consideration is a Sequent S81 running Dynix. The model that
they've quoted has about 8 Gb of disk storage and two 386 processors.
They're claiming 8 mip performance.
Could anyone with any experience with Sequents in general and the
S81 in particular give me some information about the company, the
OS, and the hardware?
What I'm looking for is System V compatibilty, reliabilty, support(!),
general views on the company, etc. Anything you can give me would
be nice. We're primarily a System V shop, with little or no BSD
experience, so portability is an issue as well. We make use of large
data base files ( >250 Mb ), otherwise our applications are pretty
straight forward. We do plan to get into image processing later on,
so compatibility with the rest of the world is an issue as well..
Thanks in Advance!
Chris Anderson email: ...!pacbell!sactoh0!caanders
QMA, Inc. uucp: ...!csusac!fenris
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!uflorida!mailrus!ames!pacbell!pbseps!rdp
From: r...@pbseps.UUCP (Richard Perlman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: Sequent S81 running Dynix
Message-ID: <368@pbseps.UUCP>
Date: 12 Mar 89 01:21:26 GMT
References: <723@sactoh0.UUCP> <2400037@horizon>
Reply-To: r...@pbseps.PacBell.COM (Richard Perlman)
Organization: Pacific Bell Separations, San Francisco, CA
Lines: 29
We are running a 4 processor Symmetry (small cabinet, is that the
S27 (can recall)?). All in all it has been quite reliable. We
started out life as a 10 processor Balance and then upgraded to
Symmetry rev-A, we just got our Rev. B boards.
We also run diagnostics "when something goes wrong", which in our
case as happened with three sub-systems. We have had a lot of
annoying problems with the Fujitsu 9-track drives, the heads seem to
get dirty quickly. Pluss we had some problems with terminations
on the tape controller cables.
We also had to replace the SCED (serial console/ethernet
controller) board recently when it started seeing phantom
interupts from the console when booting the system. I kept
changing the console baud rate.
We are now beginning to see what looks like a disk problem on one
Swallow drive after 3 years of steady use.
Hot-line service is good, used to be GREAT. Major complaint,
System V seems to be only half-heartedly implemented. There are
problems with term i/o and some simple things (news) just don't
work at all.
--
Richard Perlman * pbseps!...@PacBell.COM || {ames,sun,att}!pacbell!pbseps!rdp
180 New Montgomery St. rm 602, San Francisco, CA 94105 |*| 1(415) 545-0233
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!pyramid!csg
From: c...@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: Sequent S81 running Dynix, att universe (long)
Keywords: System V
Message-ID: <62468@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Date: 14 Mar 89 07:09:23 GMT
References: <368@pbseps.UUCP> <455@sendai.ann-arbor.mi.us>
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 90
[If you don't care about System V, hit 'n' now!]
[If Sequent won't answer technical questions here, then I'll do it for them.
What Sequent needs to do is hire some of their more technically competant and
well-known-on-the-net customers, like the way Encore hired Barry Shein. Maybe
Ron Christian can be enticed away from Fujitsu. :-) :-) :-) Just a JOKE, Ron!]
In article <3...@pbseps.UUCP> r...@pbseps.PacBell.COM (Richard Perlman) writes:
>System V seems to be only half-heartedly implemented.
That's not quite fair. Essentially, the Dynix att universe is a mapping layer
for translating SVR2 semantics into 4.2BSD. A combination of the following
hooks are employed:
- The att universe runtime library (libc.a) remaps a number of calls from SVR2
into their moral equivalent in BSD 4.2 calls. Sometimes, the bulk of the
"system call" is handled entirely in the library. An example is the uname(2)
call. (Note, there is nothing at all wrong with this; the SVID specifically
allows for it.) In addition, Dynix takes advantage of some of its extended
facilities; for example shared memory operations are performed through the
mmap(2) facility.
- A number of new system calls were added for semantics that were beyond the
reach of library calls, e.g., chown(2), open(2), creat(2), and setuid(2).
There are also some kernel hooks for signals.
- The notion of conditional symbolic links was added. The conditional symlink
points one of several ways, with a value in the u table selecting which path
to follow. Of course, this is how the notion of "universes" is implemented.
It is a very useful and elegant concept (assuming you consider symlinks a
good idea at all, which many purists do not), and at one time Pyramid and
Sequent were jointly trying to convince Sun to adopt support for conditional
symlinks in NFS. I don't know whatever happened to that.
The weakness of the current Dynix implementation is that *distinctly* SVR2
facilities that cannot be emulated by the 4.2BSD kernel are not available.
For example, the SVR2 flock(2) provides either mandatory or advisory file
locking. The 4.2BSD kernel can perform advisory locks only; hence the Dynix
flock(2) also is only capable of advisory locks. Perhaps the most painful
limitation is termio(7), as observed by Mr. Perlman. The Dynix termio calls
all have the correct structures and ioctl(2) calls of SVR2, and code will
compile correctly. But the distinctly System V capabilities like VMIN, VTIME,
and the useful permutations of IXON/IXANY/IXOFF silently fail to work. I do
not believe named pipes work entirely, either, although they could.
The Dynix implementation does cover a large percentage of the System V utili-
ties. The things I've had the most trouble with are datacomm programs. For
example, when HoneyDanBer UUCP is compiled for System V, it is very aggresive
about using all kinds of SVR2 features; it won't run on Dynix. Of course, if
you configure HDB for 4.2BSD, it compiles and runs on Dynix without a hitch.
Also non-portable are the distinctly System V utilities like init/getty/login.
Note that I am only commenting about the current Dynix *implementation*; the
*design* is not significantly different from the "merged UNIX" strategy that
Sun Microsystems has been following for some time. Library calls, and kernel
when you have to. What Dynix needs is to be brought up to date; SVR2 was old
news three years ago. Perhaps even smarter would be a brand new symmetric port
of SVR3, and forget Berkeley. I'd bet anyone lunch that that is exactly what
Sequent and Unisys are doing, even as we speak; Unisys presently is offering
only an SVR2 port for their version of the Sequent S27 and S81.
What is humorous -- to me, anyway -- is that Dynix has the internal implemen-
tation of a merged system, but the external appearance of a Pyramid-style dual
port. (A true dual port has two complete and independent sets of system calls,
amongst other things.) Given all the reasons why *not* to do a dual port, this
seems like more of a marketing decision than an R&D one. I haven't seen the
Harris or Gould dual port systems, so I can't contrast them.
Back to Richard Perlman:
>There are problems with term i/o and some simple things (news) just don't
>work at all.
In article <4...@sendai.ann-arbor.mi.us> r...@sendai.UUCP (K. Richard Magill) writes:
>What news? Oxtrap has been running news for almost 2 years now.
Wrong concept. There is a System V utility called news(1), which has nothing
at all to do with Netnews or Usenet.
But I wouldn't call news(1) a "simple thing." Neither the Dynix version nor
the original SVR2 source works (I tested it myself); it doesn't find any news
files. The problem is news.c does its own read and scan of the /usr/news
directory. Dynix cannot (at least, it better not!) manipulate what a program
gets when it reads a raw directory. And of course, Dynix uses the BSD file-
system, which doesn't look much like a System V filesystem.
So news.c either has to be fixed to use dirent.h (as it does in SVR3) or con-
verted to read BSD directories. Note that any other machine that uses the BSD
filesystem will have exactly the same problem, including Pyramid and Sun.
<csg>
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!sequent!phil
From: p...@sequent.UUCP (Phil Hochstetler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: Sequent S81 running Dynix, att universe (long)
Keywords: System V
Message-ID: <12609@sequent.UUCP>
Date: 15 Mar 89 07:38:50 GMT
References: <368@pbseps.UUCP> <455@sendai.ann-arbor.mi.us> <62468@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Reply-To: p...@crg2.UUCP (Phil Hochstetler)
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc
Lines: 33
In article <62...@pyramid.pyramid.com> c...@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes:
| In article <3...@pbseps.UUCP> r...@pbseps.PacBell.COM (Richard Perlman) writes:
| >System V seems to be only half-heartedly implemented.
|
| That's not quite fair. Essentially, the Dynix att universe is a mapping layer
| for translating SVR2 semantics into 4.2BSD. A combination of the following
| hooks are employed:
[ discription of the SVAE (System V Application Environment) deleted]
| But I wouldn't call news(1) a "simple thing." Neither the Dynix version nor
| the original SVR2 source works (I tested it myself); it doesn't find any news
| files. The problem is news.c does its own read and scan of the /usr/news
| directory. Dynix cannot (at least, it better not!) manipulate what a program
| gets when it reads a raw directory. And of course, Dynix uses the BSD file-
| system, which doesn't look much like a System V filesystem.
|
| So news.c either has to be fixed to use dirent.h (as it does in SVR3) or con-
| verted to read BSD directories. Note that any other machine that uses the BSD
| filesystem will have exactly the same problem, including Pyramid and Sun.
|
| <csg>
On the contrary, the kernel performs what is called "directory emulation".
Any program using the SystemV read system call to read a directory, gets
a directory formatted with 14 char names. I think the problems with
news(1) is somewhere else.
Sequent does read the net on a regular basis but maintains a low profile.
--
Phil Hochstetler UUCP: uunet!sequent!phil
Sequent Computer Systems
Beaverton, Oregon
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!sharkey!oxtrap!sendai!rich
From: r...@sendai.ann-arbor.mi.us (K. Richard Magill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: Sequent S81 running Dynix, att universe (long)
Keywords: System V
Message-ID: <457@sendai.ann-arbor.mi.us>
Date: 19 Mar 89 12:18:46 GMT
References: <368@pbseps.UUCP> <455@sendai.ann-arbor.mi.us> <62468@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Reply-To: r...@sendai.UUCP (K. Richard Magill)
Organization: Digital Works, Ltd. - Ann Arbor
Lines: 41
In article <62...@pyramid.pyramid.com> c...@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes:
(You obviously have source. I don't.)
>What Dynix needs is to be brought up to date;
This isn't unique to the SysV world. I could mention Van Jacobson
code, (which is might not be fair), but surely async io, sigio, and a
host of other 4.3 socket features are long overdue.
>SVR2 was old
>news three years ago. Perhaps even smarter would be a brand new symmetric port
>of SVR3, and forget Berkeley.
Uh, this isn't really quite possible. There are some of us out here
who are really using symmetric code and applications that SysV hasn't
even begun to think about.
First and foremost, (remember I'm not a source code owner), if at&t
has a working version of streams, why are so many vendors marketting
SysV w/sockets only?
>What is humorous -- to me, anyway -- is that Dynix has the internal implemen-
>tation of a merged system, but the external appearance of a Pyramid-style dual
>port. [...] Given all the reasons why *not* to do a dual port, this
>seems like more of a marketing decision than an R&D one.
I don't agree. Must simpler to support as is. And personally, I get
kind of pissed at the Sun only features of SunOS. ie, I'd rather
system V was in SysV universe and I can import the things I
like/want/need which is precisely what sequent currently provides.
>In article <4...@sendai.ann-arbor.mi.us> r...@sendai.UUCP (K. Richard Magill) writes:
>>What news? Oxtrap has been running news for almost 2 years now.
>Wrong concept. There is a System V utility called news(1), which has nothing
>at all to do with Netnews or Usenet.
Ok, ok. too many things called gnus or gnews or news or nEws or ...
in the world.
--
rich.
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!viccol!timcc
From: ti...@csv.viccol.edu.au (Tim Cook)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted,comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Wanted: Secure version of ftpd(8) for DYNIX
Summary: Sequent don't seem to care...
Message-ID: <6230.265d723f@csv.viccol.edu.au>
Date: 25 May 90 22:58:22 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.sequent
Organization: Computer Services, Victoria College, Melbourne
Lines: 48
Posted: Fri May 25 23:58:22 1990
We are about to connect to AARNet (The Australian Academic and Research
Network), so I wanted to ensure there are as few security holes around as
possible. We have _not_ been supplied new versions of ftpd or sendmail for
our Sequent Symmetry since November 1988, so I have resorted to finding new
versions myself.
I managed to find a newer version of ftpd, but it has problems working
under DYNIX. In its initialization, it goes through the following
statements:
addrlen = sizeof (his_addr);
if (getpeername(0, (struct sockaddr *)&his_addr, &addrlen) < 0) {
syslog(LOG_ERR, "getpeername (%s): %m",argv[0]);
exit(1);
}
addrlen = sizeof (ctrl_addr);
if (getsockname(0, (struct sockaddr *)&ctrl_addr, &addrlen) < 0) {
syslog(LOG_ERR, "getsockname (%s): %m",argv[0]);
exit(1);
}
There are other socket-type calls with `0' as first argument contained in
the code, but it dies on the getpeername(2) call. Not surprising when you
consider the documentation for this call.
SYNOPSIS
getpeername(s, name, namelen)
int s;
struct sockaddr *name;
int namelen;
DESCRIPTION
Getpeername returns the name of the peer connected to socket
s. The namelen parameter should be initialized to indicate
the amount of space pointed to by name. On return it con-
tains the actual size of the name returned (in bytes).
Now nothing is done to file descriptor 0 before these calls are attempted,
so it is also unsurprising that ENOTSOCK is found in errno.
What the hell is supposed to happen here (thinking that this must be a case
of changed behaviour in 4.3bsd)?
Alternatively, has anyone got ftpd source for DYNIX V3.0.12 or later that
has had November 1988's bug(s) removed?
--
Sequent Symmetry -- Nice price, shame about the OS...
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!rick
From: r...@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: Wanted: Secure version of ftpd(8) for DYNIX
Summary: uunet:networking/ftpd.tar.Z
Message-ID: <90372@uunet.UU.NET>
Date: 25 May 90 22:57:14 GMT
References: <6230.265d723f@csv.viccol.edu.au>
Organization: UUNET Communications Services, Falls Church, VA
Lines: 8
Posted: Fri May 25 23:57:14 1990
On uunet.uu.net in networking/ftpd.tar.Z is a version of ftpd that
works under Dynix (It was developed under Dynix).
The only Dynix related problem with it is that ABORTs dont work because
Dynix doesnt do the out of band signalling correctly and doesnt
support S_OOBINLINE.
---rick
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!ianj
From: i...@sequent.UUCP (Ian Johnstone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: Wanted: Secure version of ftpd(8) for DYNIX
Message-ID: <35762@sequent.UUCP>
Date: 26 May 90 18:39:34 GMT
References: <6230.265d723f@csv.viccol.edu.au>
Reply-To: i...@crg2.UUCP (Ian Johnstone)
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc
Lines: 27
Posted: Sat May 26 19:39:34 1990
In article <6230.265d7...@csv.viccol.edu.au> ti...@csv.viccol.edu.au (Tim Cook) writes:
>We are about to connect to AARNet (The Australian Academic and Research
>Network), so I wanted to ensure there are as few security holes around as
>possible. We have _not_ been supplied new versions of ftpd or sendmail for
>our Sequent Symmetry since November 1988, so I have resorted to finding new
>versions myself.
>
>...lots deleted.....
There have been several maintenance releases of Dynix since Novemeber
1988. There was in particular a security maintenance release that
addressed problems in the area that interests you. Either you do not
have a service agreement or our records are incorrect. In either case
I would suggest you contact
Sequent Service
sequent!svcmailbug
800-854-9969 (usa only)
503-526-4164
503-526-3731 FAX
hope this helps.
--
Ian Johnstone uunet!sequent!ianj
Sequent Computer Systems 503-626-5700
Beaverton, Oregon
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!uupsi!rpi!dali!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!munnari.oz.au!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!viccol!timcc
From: ti...@csv.viccol.edu.au (Tim Cook)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: Wanted: Secure version of ftpd(8) for DYNIX
Message-ID: <6237.2663aaa5@csv.viccol.edu.au>
Date: 30 May 90 16:12:37 GMT
References: <6230.265d723f@csv.viccol.edu.au> <35762@sequent.UUCP>
Organization: Computer Services, Victoria College, Melbourne
Lines: 12
Posted: Wed May 30 17:12:37 1990
To all the people who posted and sent me private messages regarding
inetd/ftpd/telnetd/DYNIX, thanks.
I now have the most recent versions of telnetd and ftpd running from inetd
(it looks a bit strange when you telnet to our sequent, and see "4.3 BSD
UNIX" in the login banner).
For those interested in why we have not seen any DYNIX upgrades since
3.0.12, the blame probably does not lie with Sequent, but with their
distributors in Australia, Sigma Data.
I'll see what they have to say for themselves.
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!samsung!munnari.oz.au!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!viccol!timcc
From: ti...@csv.viccol.edu.au (Tim Cook)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: DYNIX upgrades in Australia
Message-ID: <6248.266a5f6a@csv.viccol.edu.au>
Date: 4 Jun 90 18:17:30 GMT
References: <6230.265d723f@csv.viccol.edu.au> <35762@sequent.UUCP> <6237.2663aaa5@csv.viccol.edu.au>
Organization: Computer Services, Victoria College, Melbourne
Lines: 16
Posted: Mon Jun 4 19:17:30 1990
In article <6237.2663a...@csv.viccol.edu.au>, I wrote:
> For those interested in why we have not seen any DYNIX upgrades since
> 3.0.12, the blame probably does not lie with Sequent, but with their
> distributors in Australia, Sigma Data.
>
> I'll see what they have to say for themselves.
I have spoken with someone from Sigma Data who told me that 3.0.17, which
is now the latest version, and contains fixes for known security problems,
has only just started arriving in Australia.
It would seem more likely that the distribution channels between Sequent
and Sigma Data are a bit slow (this is just speculation, though).
Anyway, I am satisfied with this response, but I would be interested in
when Sequent owners in the US first saw 3.0.17 on their doorsteps.
|