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Document:	ULTRIX Release Notes for RISC Processors
Order Number:	AA-NE12A-TE
Revision:	000
Pages:	93
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OCR Text

ULTRIX
Release Notes
for RISC Processors

Order No. AA-NE12A-TE

ULTRIX-32 Operating System, Version 3.0
ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0

Digital Equipment Corporation

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be
construed as a commitment by Digital Equipment Corporation. Digital Equipment Corporation
assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document.
The software described in this document is furnished under a license and may be used or
copied only in accordance with the terms of such license.
No responsibility is assumed for the use or reliability of software on equipment that is not
supplied by DIGITAL or its affiliated companies.

The following are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation:

DEC
DECnet
DEC US
DEC windows
MicroVAX

ULTRIX
ULTRIX-11
ULTRIX-32
VAX
VAXstation

VMS
VT

XUI
ULTRIX Worksystem Software

mamaama

UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T in the USA and other countries.
PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.
X Window System is a trademark of MIT.
This manual was written and produced by the ULTRIX Documentation Group in Nashua, New
Hampshire.

Contents

About This Manual
Audience ..........................................................................................................

Organization . .. .. ......... .. .. .... .. ................. .. .. .... ....................... .. . ................ .........

Conventions .. .... .. ........... .. .... . ............. .................... .. ... .. . .. .. .. .. ............... ...........

1 System Setup Notes
1.1 Installation Notes ....................................................................................

1-1

1.1.1 Changes to the Advanced Installation .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .

1-1

1.1.1.1 Selecting Swap Partitions ....................................................
1.1.1.2 Unsupported Subsets ............................................................
1.1.1.3 System Disk Partition Tables .............................................

1-2
1-2
1-2

1.1.2 Structure of Distribution Media ................................................
1.1.3 Making Special Files After an Installation .............................
1.1.4 ULTRIX Boot Path Restriction ................................................
1.1.5 Failure During Tape Installation ...............................................
1.1.6 Correcting Nonexistent Symbolic Links ...................................
1.1.7 Formatting Disks ........................................................................
1.1.8 Identifying Devices ......................................................................

1-3
1-3
1-3
1-3
1-4
1-4
1-4

1.2 Remote Installation Service Notes .......................................................

1-4

1.2.1 Changes to the Network Installation .......................................
1.2.2 Duplicate Copies of /etc/mop_mom on Startup ......................
1.2.3 Registering Clients with BIND Hostnames .............................

1-4
1-5
1-5

1.3 Diskless Management Services Notes

1-5
1-6

1.3.1 Diskless Management Services Installation Notes ................ .
1.3.2 Different DMS Commands ....................................................... .
1.3.3 The /etc/exports File .................................................................. .
1.3.4 DMS Mount Point Change ....................................................... .
1.3.5 Creating Links for the /usr/hosts Directory ........................... .
1.3.6 Changes in Setting Up Disk Environments ........................... .
1.3. 7 Timezone Setting for Diskless Clients .................................... .
1.3.8 Diskless Client Directory .......................................................... .
1.3.9 Sufficient Disk Space ................................................................ .
1.3.10 VAX Diskless Clients .............................................................. .

1-6
1-7
1-7
1-7
1-7
1-8
1-8
1-8
1-8

1.3.10.1 Changing the swap Area ................................................... .
1.3.10.2 Loading the MOP Subset ................................................. .

1-8
1-9

1.3.11 Adding and Modifying Clients ................................................ .
1.3.12 Kernel Build Failure ............................................................... ..

1-9
1-9

1.4 System Configuration Notes ................................................................. .

1-9

1.4.1 Increasing Your Swap Space .................................................... .
1.4.2 Printer Setup .............................................................................. .
1.4.3 Spool Directories for Remote Printers .................................... .
1.4.4 Shared Modem Lines ................................................................ .
1.4.5 Reactivating Hardwire Terminals ............................................. .
1.4.6 Unterminated Terminal Lines ................................................... .
1.4.7 System Exercisers ...................................................................... .
1.4.8 Eight-Bit Terminal Driver Support .......................................... .
1.4.9 PostScript Support Requires Adobe Font Metrics Files ...... .
1.4.10 Relocating awk and sed Binaries ........................................... .
1.4.11 The /etc/svcorder File for YP and BIND ............................ ..
1.4.12 Configuring Your Network with YP or BIND ..................... .

1-10
1-10
1-11
1-11
1-11
1-12
1-12
1-12
1-13
1-13
1-14
1-14

2 UL TRIX Worksystem Software Notes
2.1 Known Server Problems ........................................................................

2-1

2.2 DECwindows Applications ......................................................................

2-2

2.2.1 The dxmail Mail Handler ..........................................................
2.2.2 The dxterm Terminal Emulator ................................................

2-3
2-3

iv Contents

2.2.3 The dxcalendar Program ............................................................
2.2.4 The dxcalc Calculator .................................................................
2.2.5 The dxdb Debugger ....................................................................
2.2.6 The dxsession Session Manager ...............................................
2.2. 7 The dxvdoc Program ..................................................................
2.2.8 The dxdiff Visual Differences Program ....................................
2.2.9 The dxue User Executive ..........................................................
2.2.10 The dxnotepad Program ...........................................................
2.2.11 The dxpaint Program ...............................................................
2.2.12 The dxpsview PostScript Previewer .......................................

2-6
2-6
2-6
2-7
2-9
2-9
2-10
2-11
2-12
2-12

2.2.12.1 Known Problems .................................................................. 2-12
2.2.12.2 Application Resource Names ............................................. 2-14
2.2.12.3 Differences Between the Previewer and an LPS40
Printer .................................................................................. 2-14
2.2.13 The dxwm Window Manager ................................................... 2-14
2.2.13.1 Naming Windows and Icons ..............................................
2.2.13.2 Handling Mapping Requests ..............................................

2-15
2-16

2.3 Demonstration Programs ........................................................................ 2-17
2.4 Xll R3 Applications .............................................................................. 2-17
2.4.1 The uwm Window Manager .......................................................
2.4.2 The xbiff Command ....................................................................
2.4.3 The xterm Terminal Emulator ..................................................
2.4.4 Changes to .Xdefaults from MIT XlO ....................................
2.4.5 Command Line Syntax Changes ...............................................
2.4.6 Unsupported R3 Clients .............................................................

2-18
2-18
2-18
2-20
2-21
2-21

2.5 DECwindows Fonts ................................................................................. 2-21
2.5.1 Font File Names .........................................................................
2.5.2 Access to Font Names ...............................................................
2.5.3 Understanding Font Names .......................................................
2.5.4 Font Properties ............................................................................
2.5.5 Font Problems .............................................................................

2-22
2-22
2-23
2-24
2-25

2.6 The Xlib Library

2-25

2.7 The XUI Toolkit

2-27

Contents v

3 UL TRIX-32 Operating System Notes
3.1 Differences Between RISC-Based and VAX-Based Systems .............

3-1

3.1.1 Components Not in RISC-Based Systems .............................. 3-1
3.1.2 Components that Differ ............................................................. 3-3
3.1.3 Components on RISC-Based Systems Only ............................ 3-9
3.1.4 Unsupported Components on RISC-Based Systems ............... 3-10
3.2 Hints for Porting Software to RISC-Based Systems ........................ 3-10
3.3 Compliance with Operating System Standards ................................... 3-12
3.4 Network File System ............................................................................. 3-12
3.4.1 NFS File and Record Locking .................................................. 3-12
3.4.2 NFS Server Security Changes .................................................. 3-12
3.5 Programming Notes ................................................................................ 3-13
3.6 Libraries ................................................................................................... 3-13
3.6.1 C Library ..................................................................................... 3-13
3.6.2 Math Library .......... ..................................................................... 3-14
3.7 Compiler Notes ....................................................................................... 3-14
3.8 Commands and Utilities ........................................................................ 3-16
3.8.1 The ar Command ........................................................................
3.8.2 The lint Command ......................................................................
3.8.3 The lprsetup Command ..............................................................
3.8.4 The lpr Command .......................................................................
3.8.5 The cp Command ........................................................................
3.8.6 The showmount Command .........................................................
3.8. 7 Regular Expression Handling ....................................................
3.8.8 The mail Command ....................................................................

3-17
3-17
3-18
3-18
3-18
3-19
3-19
3-19

3.8.8.1 Alternate Forwarding File ....................................................
3.8.8.2 Daemon Start Order .............................................................
3.8.8.3 Delimiters for Aliasing .........................................................
3.8.8.4 Invoking mail More Than Once ..........................................

3-19
3-20
3-20
3-20

vi Contents

3.8.9 The sh Command .......................................................................
3.8.10 The newcsh Command .............................................................
3.8.11 The chfn Command ..................................................................
3.8.12 The cpio Command ...................................................................
3.8.13 The csh Command ....................................................................
3.8.14 The de Command ......................................................................
3.8.15 The ltf Command ......................................................................
3.8.16 The make Command ................................................................
3.8.17 The pstat Command .................................................................
3.8.18 The rdump Command ...............................................................
3.8.19 The script Command ................................................................
3.8.20 The setld Command ...... ...... .. ...... ... .......... ...... .. ................... .. .. .

3-20
3-21
3-21
3-21
3-21
3-21
3-22
3-22
3-23
3-23
3-23
3-23

3.8.20.1 Removing Subsets ............................................................... 3-23
3.8.20.2 Installing Subsets from Two Installation Devices .......... 3-23
3.8.20.3 Installing Subsets ................................................................ 3-24
3.8.21 The size Command ................................................................... 3-24
3.8.22 The talk Command ................................................................... 3-24
3.8.22.1 The talk Command Is Not 8-bit Clean ........................... 3-24
3.8.22.2 Changes in the talk Program ............................................ 3-25
3.8.23 The uucp Command ..................................................................
3.8.24 The uucpsetup Command .........................................................
3.8.25 The vi Command .......... .... ..... ...... ........... ... ..... ..... ....... ... .. ........ .
3.8.26 The yppasswd Command ..........................................................

3-25
3-25
3-25
3-26

3.9 System Facilities ..................................................................................... 3-26
3.9.1 Errors in the /etc/passwd File ..................................................
3.9.2 The ptrace System Call .............................................................
3.9.3 The sendmail Program ...............................................................
3.9.4 Writing into a Remote a.out File .............................................

3-26
3-27
3-27
3-27

3.10 Networking and Communications ........................................................ 3-28
3.10.1 DLI/802 Passes Up Packets That Should Be Dropped ......
3.10.2 DLI/Ethernet Drivers ................................................................
3.10.3 Incorrect UUCP Checksum Calculation with F Protocol ....
3.10.4 Performance Improvement for YP and BIND ......................
3.10.5 Manual Update of BIND server's Serial Number ................

3-28
3-28
3-28
3-29
3-29

Contents vii

3.10.6 Use of Full Host Names When Running BIND .................. 3-29
3.10.7 NFS Server Security Changes ................................................ 3-30
3.10.8 Blank Lines in Yellow Pages Map Files ............................... 3-30
3.11 Standards and External Specifications .............................................. 3-30
3.11.1 POSIX Interface Support ........................................................ 3-30
3.11.2 System Calls in the POSIX Environment ............................ 3-31
3.12 Miscellaneous Known Problems ........................................................... 3-31

4 UL TRIX Documentation Notes
4.1 Revised and New Documents ...............................................................

4-1

4.2 Reference Pages ....................... .. ...... ................ ........... ..... ......... ... .... .......

4-2

4.3 Undocumented Library Functions .........................................................

4-3

viii Contents

About This Manual

These notes apply to the ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.C
(RISC) and ULTRIX-32 Operating System, Version 3.0 (RISC) software
kits. The ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0 (RISC) kit is
intended for RISC-based workstations and contains two components:
•
Graphics windowing software
•
Base operating system software
The ULTRIX-32 Operating System, Version 3.0 (RISC) kit is intended for
RISC-based server systems and contains only the base operating system
software.

Audience
This manual should be read by all customers who have a purchased an
ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0 (RISC) or ULTRIX-32
Operating System, Version 3.0 (RISC) system.

Organization
Chapter 1

System Setup Notes
Contains the notes that you should read before installing
your system, setting it up as a remote installation ( ris) or
a diskless management services ( dms) server, or configuring
( building) your system kernel.

Chapter 2

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes
Contains the notes that pertain to UL TRIX W orksystem
Software, which provides the graphics windowing software.
If you have an ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0
(RISC) system, you should read the notes in this chapter.

Chapter 3

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

Chapter 4

Contains the notes that pertain to the ULTRIX-32
Operating System, which provides the base operating system
software. If you have an ULTRIX Worksystem Software,
Version 2.0 (RISC) or ULTRIX-32 Operating System,
Version 3.0 (RISC) system, you should read the notes in
this chapter.
ULTRIX Documentation Notes
Contains the notes that pertain to the UL TRIX
documentation that shipped with your UL TRIX W orksystem
Software, Version 2.0 (RISC) or ULTRIX-32 Operating
System, Version 3.0 (RISC) system.

Conventions
The following conventions are used in this manual:
special

name(n)

italics
UPPERCASE

In text, each mention of a specific command, option,
partition, pathname, directory, or file is presented in this
type.
References to ULTRIX commands, system calls, or
subroutines include the section numbers in the ULTRIX
Reference Pages or ULTRIX Worksystem Software
Reference Pages where they are documented.
In syntax and function definition descriptions, this type
indicates terms that are variable.

example

The UL TRIX system differentiates between lowercase and
uppercase characters. In examples, enter uppercase
characters only where they are specifically indicated by an
example or a syntax line.
In examples, system output is printed in this type.

example

In examples, user input is printed in this boldface type.

x About This Manual

System Setup Notes

The notes in this chapter provide information about installing and setting
up your ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0 (RISC) or
ULTRIX-32, Version 3.0 (RISC) system. You should read this chapter m
its entirety before you install your software distribution kit. Then,
depending on your system, you should read the relevant notes in the
remaining chapters.
This chapter discusses:
•
•

Installation notes
Remote installation service notes

•

Diskless management services notes

•

System configuration notes

1.1

Installation Notes

The notes in this section pertain to the installation procedure.
section discusses:
•

Changes to the advanced installation

•
•

Structure of the distribution media
Making special files after the installation

•

ULTRIX boot path restriction

•
•

Failure during tape installation
Correcting nonexistent symbolic links

•

Formatting disks

•

Identifying devices

1.1.1

This

Changes to the Advanced Installation

The next three notes are specific to the advanced installation procedure:

•

Selecting swap partitions

•
•

Unsupported software subsets
System disk partition tables

1.1.1.1 Selecting Swap Partitions - Avoid selecting the a partition of
any disk for use as a swap partition. If a customized partition table has
previously been defined for a disk and swapping occurs to the a partitions,
the disk partition table, which resides on the a partition, will be destroyed.
For information about increasing swap space, see Section 4.1.
1.1.1.2 Unsupported Subsets - To install desired unsupported subsets
from tape or CDROM distribution after you have completed the installation,
use the /etc/setld command. For further information, see setld( 8) in the
ULTRIX Reference Pages.
To install subsets from tape, load the tape labeled UNSUPPORTED. To
install subsets from your CDROM distribution, mount the c partition of the
CDROM and load subsets from /mnt/RISC_UNSUPPORTED or
/mnt/VAX_UNSUPPORTED, as is appropriate.
1.1.1.3 System Disk Partition Tables - If you have modified the
partition table of the system disk, the advanced installation issues a
prompt asking if you want to use the default partition structuring or the
customized partitioning. The basic criteria for allowing a customized
partition structure are that the root or a partition must be at least 32768
blocks and that the swap or b partition must be at least 12288 blocks.
(This assumes that you plan to add a second paging device.) The
installation does not check to guarantee the size of any other partitions on
this disk. Therefore, you are responsible for selecting a suitable location
and size for the /usr file system.

During the advanced installation, no other disks on the system are
modified. Whatever partition tables might exist are used; otherwise, default
partition structuring is assumed.
During a basic installation, however, target system disks are set to have
default partitions. No other disks on the system are modified during a
basic installation.

1-2 System Setup Notes

1.1.2

Structure of Distribution Media

The subsets on the distribution media are an ordered set of tar images
starting at the fifth file on tape. These images are compressed (with the
compress( 1) utility). One benefit of doing this is that less space will be
required to hold the subsets when you set up a RIS area for network
installations.
Note that the setld product environments on the CDROM distribution are
structured hierarchically.
1.1.3

Making Special Files After an Installation

Durirrg an installation to disk, only the special files for the disk and tape
devices actually used are created. To make special files for other devices,
follow this procedure once the installation procedure has completed.
% SU

Password:
# cd /dev
# MAKEDEV device . ..

The device name specified should be the name of the peripheral as it is
displayed during auto-configuration when your system boots.
1.1.4

ULTRIX Boot Path Restriction

If an attempt to boot a kernel image from disk fails because the image
does not exist, the ultrixboot program prompts for the kernel image name
as follows:
Enter image name:

With this release, you must enter the following path using the same syntax
used at the console prompt:
rz(O,O,O)vmunix.new

The ultrixboot program is currently unable to load a kernel image from a
disk other than the actual booted device.
1.1.5

Failure During Tape Installation

During a TK50 tape installation, you must wait until the tape completely
rewinds before answering any questions presented by the Standalone
ULTRIX Environment. This is necessary to prevent the installation
software from accessing the tape device while it is still rewinding after the
bootstrap operation.

System Setup Notes 1-3

1.1.6

Correcting Nonexistent Symbolic Links

After performing an installation, some symbolic links point to nonexistent
files. To correct this, issue the following commands:
3

Password:
# rm /etc/rdump /etc/rrestore /usr/bin/make
# In -s .. /bin/rdump /etc/rdump
# In -s .. /bin/rrestore /etc/rrestore
# In -s s5make /usr/bin/make

Note that correcting this situation is not essential to normal operation.
1. 1.7

Formatting Disks

The Basic Installation Guide for the DECstation 3100 states that you
must format and prepare your disks. Because your disks are preformatted
and ready for use, you should ignore this step.
1.1.8

Identifying Devices

During an installation, you are instructed to use the test command to
identify the devices that are connect to your system. To ensure that your
system will boot successfully, you should use the following commands to
identify your devices:
3 test -c
3

in i t

1.2

Remote Installation Service Notes

The notes in this section pertain to a Remote Installation Service ( RIS)
installation. This section discusses:
•

Changes to the network installation

•

Duplicate copies of /etc/mop_mom on startup

•

Registering clients with BIND hostnames

1.2.1

Changes to the Network Installation

The ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0 (RISC) kit installation
offers the option of doing an advanced installation procedure from the
network. Only those subsets beginning with UDT and UDW in a client's
model file will be installed during the system installation. You can install
other subsets from the network at a later time by using the /etc/setld
command.

1-4 System Setup Notes

The basic installation procedure from the network only installs the
mandatory UDT and UDW subsets.
1.2.2

Duplicate Copies of /etc/mop_mom on Startup

The ris utility attempts to modify the /etc/re.local file to start the
mop_mom daemon on system startup. It does this by searching for a line
in /etc/re.local that begins with /etc/mop_mom. If no such line is found,
one is created. This can cause duplicate invocations of the daemon if the
/etc/re.local has been modified to start the mop_mom daemon in a way
that is not recognized by ris.
If the /etc/re.local file must be modified to start mop_mom in a way not
understood by this utility, you must add the following string to the
/etc/re.local file to prevent duplicate invocations:
/etc/mop_mom_risfix

This has no effect on system startup and effectively indicates to ris that
the mop_mom daemon has already been set up correctly.
1.2.3

Registering Clients with BIND Hostnames

The ris utility does not correctly register clients with full BIND specified
hostnames in the mop databases. This will cause a boot failure for these
clients when attempting to perform the network installation. If you
encounter this problem, make the following change:
3

Password:
# cd /usr/var/dnet/cl ients
# mv fullhostname. sys fullhostname

The fullhostname is the fully specified hostname for the client that is to
be booted.

1.3

Diskless Management Services Notes

The notes in this section pertain to a diskless environment.
discusses:
•

Diskless management services installation notes

•

Different DMS commands

•

The /etc/exports file

•

DMS mount point change

•

Creating links for the /usr/hosts directory

This section

System Setup Notes 1-5

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Changes in setting up disk environments
Timezone setting for diskless clients
Diskless client directory
Sufficient disk space
VAX diskless clients
Adding and modifying clients
Kernel build failure

1.3.1
Diskless Management Services Installation Notes
Diskless management services ( DMS) has undergone a number of changes
that affect the way clients are added. For example, only one GENERIC
kernel is distributed for use in running clients added to the environment.
Kernels are no longer built on the server system. This means that at
least one client in the environment must be registered to build a
customized kernel. Regardless of the client's swap requirements, a
temporary ( in the case of choosing a local swap device) network swap file
is created to support this activity. After adding this client, you should
boot the RISC-based diskless system using the following command:
>> setenv bootpath mop()
>> auto

When the client system boots, it will automatically build the kernel as
described on the server system. When the build completes, you are
instructed to set the boot environment at the console and to reboot using
commands displayed.
After the first client has built a customized environment, you can add
other systems that are to be considered clones of the first by using the
"duplicate sub-option". For now, only the /dev directory and the /vmunix
and /etc/hosts file and /sys hierarchy are duplicated from the first
environment. The rest of the client's root environment is installed as in
the past from the selected "dlenv?/root?.mips" environment.
1.3.2
Different OMS Commands
For ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0 (RISC) and ULTRIX-32,
Version 3.0 (RISC), DMS has been significantly changed to support a nonVAX architecture. As a consequence, the /etc/dms.new command has been
provided with the RISC-based server kit to serve other RISC-based clients.
You should use the appropriate DMS command when managing your RISCbased and VAX-based clients: /etc/dms.new for RISC-based system and
/etc/dms for existing VAX-based system.

1-6 System Setup Notes

1.3.3

The /etc/exports File

Do not change the entries in the /etc/exports file by replacing blanks with
tabs or breaking up long lines with a return. The dms utility places its
entries in the /etc/exports file in a format that it can recognize when it
reaccesses the file. Failure to follow these guidelines can cause problems
with the mount daemon and with the dms utility's ability to read the file
properly.
1.3.4

OMS Mount Point Change

The mount point for dlenv? and dlclient? have changed. The new mount
point are /dlenv? and /dlclient?, not /var/diskless/dlenv? and
/var/diskless/dlclient?. The /etc/fstab and /etc/exports files reflect this
change. This note pertains to /etc/dms.new only.
1.3.5

Creating Links for the /usr/hosts Directory

On the diskless client, the /usr/hosts directory does not contain any links
that will allow you to log in to another system by entering that system's
name as a command.
To create the links, type the following command:
3 /usr/hosts/MAKEHOSTS /dlenv?/root?.mips/usr/hosts

1.3.6

Changes in Setting Up Disk Environments

The DMS utility no longer requires dedicated disks for the software or
client environments when setting up a diskless area. You are now allowed
to use individual partitions for diskless areas. You must take care to set
up the partitions of the disk they will be using. That is, you must take
care that the partitions chosen are large enough to complete the procedure
successfully when installing software or to hold the total number of clients
that will be registered. Repartitioning of the disk is no longer performed
through the dms utility. You must set up the disk partitions before using
them.
These changes offer more installation flexibility by not requiring an entire
disk for diskless environments and allow multiple environments on different
partitions within the same disk. The new changes also allow you to add
additional diskless environments at any time.
Before invoking the dms utility, you should read the Guide to Diskl.ess
Management Services. In particular, you should read Chapter 3, which
discusses the new procedure for selecting disks and partitions.

System Setup Notes 1-7

1.3. 7

Timezone Setting for Diskless Clients

When you add a diskless client, its timezone setting is extracted from the
server's config file. The dms utility depends on the presence of a properly
constructed configuration file on the server system as was created during
the installation acting of the server.
1.3.8

Diskless Client Directory

A diskless client directory ( /dlclient?) must exist before you install any
software subsets. You must use the appropriate dms option to configure a
client partition on your server system; otherwise, when you install the
second set of subsets, dms will fail.
1.3.9

Sufficient Disk Space

It is important that you carefully calculate disk requirements for diskless
client areas by using the documentation provided with your server kit. If
you do not have enough disk space and you attempt to add a diskless
client, the dms.new utility will fail to register the client. In addition, the
remove client function also will not work. In this case, you will have to
remove the /dlclient?/client_name.root directory manually.
1.3.10

VAX Diskless Clients

The next two notes are specific to serving VAX diskless clients:
•
Changing the swap area
•

Loading the subset

1.3.10.1 Changing the swap Area - If you execute the dms Modify
Client Parameters option to change the swap area from SERVER to
LOCAL or LOCAL to SERVER, the system will display warning messages.
On rebooting VAX diskless clients, you should ignore any of the following
messages that may appear:
mkdir: /sys/SYSTEMNAME: File Exists
mv: cannot access dev/ttypf
mv: cannot access dev/ptypf
dev/XO : Fi le Exists

1-8 System Setup Notes

1.3.10.2 Loading the MOP Subset - When a RISC machine serves VAX
diskless clients, the MOP subset should be loaded on the server and
installed into all VAX client areas. Otherwise, the diskless client cannot
build a netblk executable file that contains the required network
information, and the following message will be displayed:
Cannot find SAS/mop.h

In addition, if the diskless client swaps on local disk, the kernel will not
boot.
1.3.11

Adding and Modifying Clients

When adding clients by using the dms duplicate suboption, you should
follow the instructions to boot the client before attempting to modify the
same client.
1.3.12

Kernel Build Failure

A difference in the time of day between the server and a client system
(more specifically, when the server's date and time lags the client's) can
cause the kernel build to fail. This discrepancy causes an obscure problem
with makefile dependencies to appear in the form of a "syntax error" when
diskless client systems attemp to build their kernel.
A workaround for this problem is as follows:
1.

Either temporarily adjust the time on the server so that it is ahead
of the client system, or set the date and time on the client system
so that it lags the server's date and time.

Reboot the client system and allow it to complete the kernel build.

1.4

System Configuration Notes

The notes in this section pertain to your system configuration.
section discusses:
•

Increasing your swap space

•

Printer setup

•

Spool directories for remote printers

•

Shared modem lines

•

Reactivating hardwire terminals

•

Unterminated terminal lines

•

System exercisers

This

System Setup Notes 1-9

•
•
•
•
•
1.4.1

Eight-bit terminal driver support
PostScript printer support
Relocating awk and sed binaries
The /etc/svcorder file for YP and BIND
Configuring your network with YP or BIND
Increasing Your Swap Space

If you increase your swap space beyond the default 60 Mbytes by adding

swap partitions or using a larger swap partition and you plan to run
processes with very large data segments (that is, greater than 85 Mbytes),
you must edit your system configuration file and increase the system
dmmax parameter accordingly. The syntax of the dmmax parameter is:
dmmax n

Specifies the number of 512-byte disk blocks in a swap fragment.
(The default is 4096.)

The following table provides guidelines for making the appropriate change:
Configured Swap

Recommended Value

60 Mbytes ( default)
0 - 85 Mbytes
86 - 170 Mbytes
1 71 - 340 Mbytes

4096 (default)
4096
8192
16384

For further information, see the Guide to System Configuration FUe
Maintenance for RISC Processors.
1.4.2

Printer Setup

The default size limit of a file to be printed is 1025024 bytes (local or
remote). As superuser, you can modify this default by editing the
/etc/printcap file on the local system where you issue the lpr command and
inserting the mx#O or mx#nn parameter. If mx#O is specified, the default
file size is unlimited. If mx#nn is specified, the default file size is the
specified number of 1024-byte blocks.
Once set, this new limit applies both to local print jobs and to those print
jobs sent to remote systems. Note that this limit on the local system does
not affect print requests sent from remote systems.

1-1 O System Setup Notes

As a nonprivileged user, you can workaround the file size limit by dividing
the file into sections less than 1025024 bytes before printing (assuming
that the file data format allows for this). Or, you can use the rep
command to copy the file to a system with a printer that has a
sufficiently large file size limit. Log in on that system and then request
local printing.
1.4.3

Spool Directories for Remote Printers

If you specify a printcap entry for a remote printer, you must also create
a spool directory for that printer, just as you would for a local printer.
For example, if you have an LAlOO printer with a printcap entry of
:sd =/usr/spool/la 100, then you should type the following commands to
create its spool directory with the proper owner:
3

Password:
# mkdir /usr/spool/lalOO
# chown daemon /usr/spool/lalOO

1.4.4

Shared Modem Lines

The use of shared lines requires modem control. Carrier detection must be
raised on receipt of an incoming connection and must be dropped when the
remote party hangs up. Direct connects that use modem eliminators do
not obey this protocol and cannot be used for shared lines. If you try to
use shared lines on a direct connect line that has Carrier Detect strapped
high, you will disable the line.
1.4.5

Reactivating Hardwire Terminals

Hardwired terminal ports other than the console port may hang as a result
of electrical noise appearing on the line when the terminal is turned off
and then turned back on. When the port is hung, the terminal does not
respond to keyboard input. To temporarily reactivate the terminal line,
follow these steps:
1.

Determine the process identification ( PID) of the getty process
associated with the terminal line with the ps command.

Use the kill command to kill that process. If you do not know the
number of the hung terminal line, use the last( 1) command with the
user's login name.

The following example shows how to temporarily reactivate a hung terminal
line. Assume that the login name of the user is anders:

System Setup Notes 1-11

3 SU
Password:
# last anders
ttyOl
anders
ttyOl
anders
ttyOl
anders

Mon Nov 18 10: 00
st i I I logged in
(00:33)
Mon Nov 18 08:35 - 09:08
(01:33)
Mon Nov 18 00:26 - 02:00

# ps -ax

PIO TT
0 ?
1 ?
2 ?
159 00
160 01

STAT
D
I
D
I
I

TIME
0:01
0:34
0:00
0:00
0:00

COMMAND
swapper
init
pagedaemon
- 2 ttyOO (getty)
- 2 ttyOl (getty)

# ki I I

-9 160

1.4.6

Unterminated Terminal Lines

Improperly terminated terminal lines can cause the associated getty process
to use the CPU heavily. Line interference causes the getty process to
assume that a user is attempting to log in. This will be repeated
continuously and will cause system performance to degrade. To prevent
this, terminals should be left powered on at all times. If the line is not
used, it should be specified as off in the /etc/ttys file to prevent a getty
process from being started on the line.
1.4.7

System Exercisers

Some of the system exercisers in /usr/field require their log files to be local
to the exerciser. Because the /usr file system should be mounted read-only
in a diskless environment, this prevents the creation of the clients' log file.
The workaround is to copy the desired exerciser to /var/tmp before
executing it. This will move the exerciser and its associated log file into
the clients' writable root area.
To run the syscript script, you should edit the file and globally change
/usr/field to /var/tmp/field.
1.4.8

Eight-Bit Terminal Driver Support

You must set up your hardware and software properly if you intend to
use a terminal in full eight-bit mode. For instructions to enable logins on
terminal lines which require eight-bit characters, see gettytab( 5) in the
ULTRIX Reference Pages. The p8 and pd flags have been added to
gettytab to facilitate the use of eight-bit characters.

1-12 System Setup Notes

DEC VTlOO series terminals are capable of displaying only the lower half
of the DEC Multinational Character Set. Standard 7-bit ASCII characters
are included in the lower half of the Multinational Character Set.
DEC VT200-series and VT300-series terminals are capable of displaying the
full DEC Multinational Character Set. However, they do not display eightbit characters when they are in VTlOO mode. To determine the current
terminal mode, call up the terminal's Set-Up Directory menu and select the
General setup option.
For example, to change your VT220 terminal set up into eight-bit mode,
follow these steps:
•
Call up the terminal's setup menu by pressing the Setup ( F3) key.
Select the General menu option.
•

Move to the field that allows you to select the terminal mode.
Select the option VT200 mode 7 bit controls.

•

Select the To Directory option to return you to the top level.

•

Call up the Comm menu.

Select the 8 bits no parity option.

The DECwindows terminal emulator, dxterm( lX), can also be set up for
use with eight-bit characters. In this case, the terminal mode must be set
to VT300 mode.
1.4.9

Postscript Support Requires Adobe Font Metrics Files

A new optional software subset, ULTAFM030, installs the Adobe Font
Metrics ( AFM) files in the /usr/lib/font/metrics directory. The subset
contains . 57 AFM files and one PostScript procedure, encodefont.ps, which
requires approximately 885K of disk space.
The AFM files contain the font metrics (character bounding box, width,
name, ligature, kerning and font properties) for the PostScript outline fonts
used in all Digital Postscript output devices ( hard copy and video) . The
information contained in these files is essential for the proper composition
of text by any application or system that needs to print to these devices.
Almost all the files are present in two forms of character encoding, namely
Adobe and ISO Latin 1. The PostScript procedure allows applications to
switch between the two forms of character encoding.
1.4.10

Relocating awk and sed Binaries

The awk and sed binary files have been moved from the root file system
to /usr. If you use /opr/backup, you need these files to be located in /bin.
To replace the awk and sed links with actual files in /bin, follow this
procedure:

System Setup Notes 1-13

Password:

Change directories to /bin:
# cd /bin

Check to see that awk and sed are links:
# Is -al awk sed
lrwxr-xr-x
1 root
lrwxr-xr-x
1 root

14 Mar 23
14 Mar 23

1988 awk@ -> .. /usr/bin/awk
1988 sed@ -> .. /usr/bin/sed

Remove the links:
# rm awk sed

Copy the binaries for awk and sed to /bin:
# cp /usr/bin/awk /usr/bin/sed /bin

1.4.11

The /etc/svcorder File for VP and BIND

When you select a host name and address resolution service, such as
Yellow Pages ( YP) or Berkeley Internet Name Domain ( BIND) , the setup
scripts create a file that is new with ULTRIX-32 Operating System, the
/etc/svcorder file.
The gethostent interface checks for the existence of /etc/svcorder. If it
does not exist, the local /etc/hosts file is used to resolve host names and
addresses. If the file does exist, however, the gethostent interface queries
each service sequentially listed in /etc/svcorder to resolve a request.
If you plan on setting up YP or BIND manually, it is important to create
the /etc/svcorder file in order to use that name service. The fact that the
YP and BIND daemons may be running does not mean that you are using
that service.

For further information, see svcorder( 5) in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.
1.4.12

Configuring Your Network with VP or BIND

It is imperative to booting that you have localhost and the full host name
(with domain name if running Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND))
and host address defined in the local /etc/hosts file, and the local entry m
/etc/svcorder. This file entry is a necessity when booting because the
Yellow Pages ( YP) and BIND daemons may not been started yet.

1-14 System Setup Notes

The following is an example of a valid /etc/hosts file:
127.0.0.1 localhost
128.1.1.2 student.harvard.edu student

In this example, student is the local host name in the BIND domain
harvard.edu.
The localhost and host name entries should also be in the YP and BIND
database.

System Setup Notes 1-15

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2

The notes in this chapter pertain specifically to the graphics windowing
software that is part of the ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0
(RISC) kit. Note that full DECwindows functionality is not available for
ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0 (RISC). This chapter
discusses:

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Known server problems
DECwindows applications
Demonstration programs
Xll R3 applications
DECwindows fonts
The Xlib library
The XUI Toolkit

2.1

Known Server Problems

•

All server messages are logged in the /usr/adm/X?msgs file, where ?
indicates the number of your display.

•

When you are not running the session manager, console messages are
displayed randomly on the screen. This may interfere with graphics
displayed by the X server. Therefore, you should redirect console
messages to a terminal emulator window. Note that you do not need
to do this if you are running the session manager.
To determine the terminal emulator window in which you would like
console messages displayed, follow this procedure:
1.

Find out the tty number of the terminal emulator window by
entering the tty command.

Become superuser.

Enter the following command:
#

/usr/bin/xcons 1 tfy? xcons &

Note that if you are running the dxsession session manager,
you should specify a terminal other than ttyvO or ttypf. Console
messages should now be directed to that terminal emulator
window. However, console messages are redirected for the
current session only.
•

You cannot set the volume, the keyboard click, or bell to zero.

On diskless systems, the lack of /tmp can inhibit the X server from
starting. You should make sure that you have created /tmp in your
diskless root area.
The following notes apply to all servers:
•

•

A new option has been added for all servers. Specify - dpi 100 for a
screen density of 100 dots per inch ( dpi) or - dpi 75 for a screen
density of 75 dpi. The default is 7 5 dpi.

•

Some workstations do not have writable default colormaps; for
example, true-color systems have no colormap because they can
display any color. For maximum portability, you should not write
applications programs that require writable cells in the default
colormap.

•

If you try to create a very large pixmap (for example, one with 2
Gbytes of data), the server will crash. There is no simple
workaround for this problem.

•

If you try to create a very large window (for example, one with a
height of 64K pixels), the sever will crash. There is no simple
workaround for this problem.

•

In some cases, XDrawPoints does not always draw the points on the
specified pixel.

2.2

DECwindows Applications

This section provides notes on the following:

•
•
•

dxcalendar

•

dxcalc

•
•
•
•

dxdb

dxmail
dxterm

dxsession
dxvdoc
dxdiff

2-2 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

•

dxue

•

dxnotepad

•

dxpaint

•

dxpsview

•

dxwm

2.2.1

The dxmail Mail Handler

The following notes apply to dxmail:
•

If dxmail should crash after a system installation, you should make
sure that the /usr/lib/X11 /app-defaults/Mail file is present on your

system.
•

The OR capability in Pick has been disabled due to a problem with
the XUI Toolkit attached dialog box widget.
The problem causes
the dxmail application to go into a tight loop that prevents display
updating and consumes most of the CPU resources.
The function was disabled with the following lines in the file:
/usr/lib/X11 /app-defaults/Mail
The next 2 I ines turn off the or buttons in the pick window.
is temporary, unti I a bug in adb widgets gets fixed.
*pick*or.sensitive:
off
*pick*bigor.sensitive:
off
!

! This

•

If you create a mail message using dxmail, enter text that wraps

across line boundaries, and then try to print that mail message, the
lines will be truncated.
To work around this problem, enter carriage return characters when
typing long lines in the text widget.

2.2.2

The dxterm Terminal Emulator

The following notes apply to dxterm:
•

A security feature has been added to the dxterm terminal emulator.
You can set the secure mode by selecting the Secure Keyboard item
from the Commands pull-down menu.
The window will appear in reverse video after you specify Secure
Keyboard. Also, the toggle button will appear highlighted next to the
Secure Keyboard item to indicate that security mode has been set.
All keyboard input will be directed to the secure window, even if you
have selected another window for input focus. This is useful for
keeping passwords and confidential information secure.

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-3

When you iconify a secure window, the security mode is turned off.
If you want security to be on, you must turn it on again when you
change your icon back to a window.
If you try to create a second secure window, dxterm beeps, which
indicates that only one emulator can be in security mode at a time.

•

A resource has been added that allows you to block keyboard and
mouse events that have been sent from a client. This resource has
been added to eliminate character strings from being sent when the
terminal is idle. This stops an unauthorized user from putting
simulated keyboard input into your dxterm window, and executing
commands as you. For example, an unauthorized user could remove
a file of yours by sending an rm command while your terminal was
idle.
The following resource has been added:
allowSendEvents

•

Specifies that clients can send keyboard and
mouse buttons events. The default is False.
The auto-resize terminal option allows the terminal's logical size (rows
and columns) to change when the window's size is changed. If you
do not set this option, when you resize your window, your window
will have the same number of rows but will appear longer or shorter.

•

When using some versions of emacs with dxterm, be sure the TERM
environment variable is not set to xterm. Set TERM to vt100 to
insure that the emulator functions correctly.

•

When you use some versions of emacs with dxterm, CTRL/S causes
input to no longer be accepted by the emulator. To avoid this
situation, set the following resource in the .Xdefaults file:
DXterm.main.terminal .controlQSHold:

•

off

Keyboard:
Compose allows you to compose only ISO Latin-1 characters;
DIGITAL MCS characters are not supported.
The following items are not functioning in Customize/Keyboard:
Caps lock/Shift
Ti Ide key
Comma key
<X] key
Angle brackets

lock

2-4 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

The following control keys are not functioning.
following replacements:
Key no rma I I y used

Replacement

Ctr I /2
Ctr I /3
Ctr I I 4
Ctr I /5
Ctr I /6
Ctr I /7
Ctr I /8
Ctr I I?
Ctr I;Ctr I I <X]

Ctr I/space
Ctr I I [
Ctrl/slash
Ct r I I]
Ctr I /Sh i ft;Ctr I /Sh i f ti_

Use the

<X]
Ctr I /Sh i f ti_
Ctr I /Shi ft;Ctr I /X

•

User-defined keys ( UDKs) cannot be loaded from the host.

•

Selecting foreground and background colors in the Session Manager
will select the background and foreground colors respectively in
dxterm if you select "light characters, dark background" (Screen
Mode off).

•

The font names listed in the dxterm manpage used the old font
naming convention. The font names should be as follows:

•

littleFontSetName

Specifies the font used for the "little" font set.
The default is "-*-Terminal-*-*-*-*-*-180* * * * * *"

bigFontSetN ame

Specifies the font used for the "big" font set.
The default is "-*-Terminal-*-*-*-*-*-140*-* * * * *"

The Secondary Device Attributes (DA) sequence does not give a
properly formatted response. This request is made with the following
sequence:
ESC > c

Usually, this reports the specific device type and version of the
terminal. This sequence is rarely used and no known ULTRIX
programs use it.
•

If a process is running in background on a local dxterm and the
window is killed, the output from the background process may be
seen when the next rlogin is performed.

•

When you start a dxterm window and use the .X11 startup file, the
commands in your .login file are not executed.

•

ReGIS emulation does not work; dxterm crashes if it receives any
ReGIS data.
On a 4-plane color system (for example, a VAXstation II/GPX),
dxterm creates a private colormap for each window in order to
emulate a 4-plane VT340 on a 4-plane workstation. dxterm creates

•

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-5

the colormap when any sixel graphics are displayed in the window.
The window manager then loads the private colormap when that
window has the input focus, and it loads default colormap when the
window loses the input focus. To restore a dxterm window to using
the default colormap, first clear the window by selecting Clear Display
command in the Commands menu and then reset the terminal by
selecting Reset Terminal command in the Commands menu.
•

There are various problems when displaying sixel graphic while
recording lines off the top. In some cases, recorded lines can
overprint each other when you use the vertical scroll bar. To avoid
these problems, turn off the Record lines off top button in the
Customize Window menu when displaying sixel pictures.

•

Attempting to resize a dxterm window before you get a prompt in the
window may cause the window to disappear.

•

The caps lock/shift lock item does not work in Customize/Keyboard.
To change between caps lock and shift lock, use the Customize
Keyboard display in the Session Manager.

2.2.3

The dxcalendar Program

The data files for dxcalendar on VAX-based and RISC-based systems are
incompatible. Any VAX-based dxcalendar database file that is run with
dxcalendar will be converted to a new format and cannot be used on a
VAX-based system again. In future VAX-based systems, the dxcalendar
program will be fixed to understand the new format. If you must use
your VAX-based dxcalendar database on your RISC-based system, make a
backup copy of it before running the RISC-based dxcalendar program.

2.2.4

The dxcalc Calculator

•

Y ~u can invoke help only once in a calculator session.

•

If you try get a glossary of terms from the Help - > About menu,
dxcalc may crash.

2.2.5

The dxdb Debugger

The following notes apply to dxdb:
•

The debugger may crash and dump core if one button, such as the
Step or Skip button, is clicked on repeatedly. This error occurs
when dxdb has not finished updating all the windows and starts
another callback before it is ready.

2-6 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

•

Occasionally, extra lines will be drawn across the source window in
addition to the current execution cursor. By causing an expose event
on the source window, you can remove them.

•

The execution cursor may move off the bottom of the source window
without the source window adjusting itself to keep the cursor in view.
You can scroll the window to keep the cursor in view.

•

For the present, you should run dxdb from the same directory as the
source code and the executable. In addition, the executable should be
compiled with the - g option, should be owned by the user, and
should not be stripped.

•

You must remove the file $HOME/.dbxinit.
incorrectly if this file exists.

•

Use the dxdb*terminalEmulator resource to change the version of the
terminal emulator used by dxdb. Its default value is /usr/bin/dxterm.
To use a different terminal emulator, put this resource in your
.Xdefaults file.

•

Terminal emulator (dxterm) windows do not close on their own. You
must pull down the Commands menu and choose the Quit menu
item. After running a program under dxdb, you should quit from the
dxterm session before running dxdb again.

•

After quitting from dxdb, you must also quit from the dxterm session
before your dxdb windows will close.

•

Very long lines in the Examine and Dump windows may cause
problems.

•

The Source window's Next Fune button sometimes positions lines
incorrectly.

2.2.6

The dxdb program works

The dxsession Session Manager

The following notes apply to the dxsession session manager:
•

The dialog box for keyboard customization for foreign languages in
the Customize menu does not work.

•
•

The message window is not selectable.
Messages from .login files are displayed in caution boxes.
example, ioctl not supported, where are you? ... )

(For

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-7

To stop the caution dialog box from being displayed and have the
session manager remove the Start Session dialog box, remove the
commands that specify terminal settings from your .login file or
surround the commands with the following conditional statement:
if( $term !=
commands
end if

none

&& $term != None
11

)

then

This conditional statement checks to see if the terminal type is None
(the type the session manager assigns to all terminal emulator
windows). If the terminal type is None, the terminal settings
commands are not invoked. If you are logging in from a real
terminal, the commands are executed.
For a sample .login file, see /usr/skel/.login.
•

If you make a change to the session manager resource with the
Customize menu and do not save them, selecting "Use Last Saved
Settings" during the same session will cause the session manager to
do one of two things:

If it is just after installation, the session will terminate and
return to Xprompter (login).

Any other time, the session manager window will disappear,
although the dxsession process is still running.

The time it takes for the window to disappear depends on the
activity directed to the session manager window (for example,
iconification or resize). When this occurs, any other processes
running on the display (for example, window manager or terminals)
will still function properly, but the dxsession process must be killed
with the kill command to return to the login prompter Xprompter.
The workaround to this problem is to log out and log back in, rather
than use the "Use Last Saved Setting" option.
•

For the printscreen option, there is no support for grayscale or color
output. Black-and-white output from color or grayscale systems is
possible.

•

For the printscreen option, the aspect ratio qualifier does not work.
The aspect ratio setting of "2 to 1" in the Customize Print Screen
dialog box (pulled down through Customize in the Session Manager)
does not work correctly. You should use only the default " 1 to 1"
setting.

•

The dxsession print screen capability uses the print widget.

2-8 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

2.2.7

The dxvdoc Program

The dxvdoc program has the following known restrictions:
•

•

Complex document layout is not supported, including page and galley
layout. Some text display attributes are also not processed when you
display a document.
Specifying on the command line a file containing a graphic which
displays on the first window causes the Viewer menu bar options and
scroll bar arrows not to appear. You can avoid this problem by
selecting such files from the Viewer open file selection box. A
workaround is to increase the window size using the resize button.
The Viewer may exit if you open several DDIF files containing
graphics in a single session. A workaround is to limit the number of
graphics files viewed, and reinvoke the Viewer in order to view more
files.
Graphics displayed on a monochrome screen use a black foreground
and white background. If the default user settings include a default
dark background, the graphics will probably not be seen until a reexpose; that is, the screen will appear blank because the graphics
have been drawn black on black. A workaround is to increase the
window size using the resize button.
If scrolling an image is not possible, it may be represented by an
improperly specified DDIF bounding box. A workaround is to
increase the window size using the resize button.
The CDA Toolkit requires that documents referred to by DDIF
document external references exist in the current default directory if
a full file pathname is not specified in the DDIF file external
reference description.

2.2.8
The dxdiff Visual Differences Program
•
The dxdiff application will exit and dump core if you use two
instances of the "Do Differences in New" menu option.

•

Some font spacing information does not work properly. If the
highlighted difference areas appear out of register with the normal
areas, use a different font.

•

Modified resources specified in the .Xdefaults file do not take effect
on any display except the first one.

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-9

2.2.9

The dxue User Executive

•

In the script /usr/lib/X11 /ue/docp, echo statements on lines 13, 18,
and 21 should be deleted or commented out.

•

There are limitations to the size of the file you can use cat on. If
you try to use cat on a file that is too large, dxue will not display
the entire file. If the file is too long, the top of the file will be
displayed and there will be a note at the bottom saying that data
was lost. As a workaround, put the following script in your path,
make it executable, and create a new menu item for it. For further
information, see the DECwindows User's Guide. It will run more in
a terminal emulator. The script is as follows:
#!/bin/sh
CMD=/usr/ucb/more
FUNCTION=More
DOING FILES=O
Quiet=O
for a r g i n $@
do
case $DOING_FILES in
0)

case $arg in
-uefiles)
DOING_FILES=l
-quiet)
QUIET=!
*)

CMD="$CMD $arg

esac
1)

FILES= $FILES $arg
esac
done
case $QUIET in
11

echo $FUNCTION Files:
read FILES
case $FILES in
? *)

exec dxterm -e /bin/sh -c

$CMD $FILES

cat

esac
1)

exec dxterm -e /bin/sh -c
esac

2-1 O ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

$CMD $FILES

cat "

It will be treated as

•

Double-clicking on a file is not implemented.
two single clicks.

•

In the Processes dialog box, the list box clips the push buttons next
to it. The push buttons still work, but they are unreadable. They
say, from top to bottom, Kill, Suspend, and Delete.

•

There can be only one instance of any named view mapped at a
time. If a view is selected from the Views menu and it is already
mapped, it will simply be raised.

•

Regular expressions typed into the file filter behave like shell
expressions with the exception that an empty filter matches all files.
Sometimes, dxue takes so long to look up the files in a directory
that the X server assumes dxue has exited and destroys dxue's
window, making it look like dxue crashed. The dxue process is still
running and will need to be killed. This can happen while waiting
for crashed NFS servers to time out.

•

When leaving the Task status box and returning to the UE window
after completing a task, dxue will display the files in the selected
view and not the startup file view displayed before. The title bar
reads Startup but the file view displayed is not the startup file view.
To work around this problem, click on the name of the directory
again.

•

When using the File Properties dialog box to select properties,
choosing Owner Selection on a large directory with many owners of
the files will cause a significant delay in updating the display.

•

Occasionally a pull-down menu may appear to be dislocated from its
source in the pull-down. If this happens, move the dxue window
slightly.

•

Cutting and pasting into dxue from other applications is currently not
functional.

•

Highlighted text in the directory list and in the list boxes in the
Edit Menus dialog box may be a color that is hard to read. Setting
the *boldForeground resource to another color will fix this problem.

2.2.10
•

The dxnotepad Program

The online help file for the dxnotepad application contains a category
called Opening an Existing File that does not have the Include File ...
option listed. This option can be viewed elsewhere in the file by
using the index option. The other entries, Open and Open ... , appear
correctly.

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-11

•

In some instances, the menu accelerators do not work properly.
When this occurs, the XUI Toolkit reports the errors on dxnotepad
startup.

2.2.11

The dxpa int Program

When you use dxpaint, the palatte's contents are first dumped to a file
that is created in the directory where dxpaint was invoked and then are
spooled to the printer. After the file is printed, the created file is not
removed from the directory in which it was created. You may want to
remove this file.

2.2.12

The dxpsview Postscript Previewer

To see if a file created with your text formatter adheres to the Adobe
page description commenting conventions, look at the first line of the
output file for the following line:
%!PS-Adobe-1.0

The Previewer also lets you view files whose first two characters are not:
%!

A warning message is displayed asking you to confirm whether the named
file is actually a PostScript file.
The previewer's performance when skipping from page to page is faster on
structured files. Unfortunately, this works only if the files are structured
and commented correctly, and many are not. If you have trouble
previewing a file, try toggling Use Comments under the Options menu.
The remainder of this section discusses:
•

Known problems

•
•

Application resource names
Difference between the previewer and an LPS40 printer

2.2.12.1

Known Problems

•

The Use Bitmap Widths toggle under the Options menu does not
work.

•

The error message box is not cleared when a new file is displayed.
You can workaround this by acknowledging the error message before
viewing another file.

2-12 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

•

The mark operator is regarded as a composite object by save/restore.
This may cause problems when you view Version 2.0 VAX
DOCUMENT-generated files. The previewer will bring up an error
box with a message saying that restore is undefined. You will find
the following in your PostScript file:
/svobj save def
mark
n your Postscript
svobj restore
cleartomark

file:

Change this to:
/svobj save def
mark
n your Postscript
cleartomark
svobj restore

file:

The following are problems with the previewer's PostScript interpreter.
You will probably not encounter them with text files that are formatted by
programs such as troff. You might see them if you write your own
PostScript programs.
•

There is a noticeable difference in the size between numerals and
capitals in the font Helvetica.

•

There is no way to stop the previewer if you give it a file with an
infinite loop, short of killing the application. For instance, the
following PostScript program causes an infinite loop:
%!
{1

pop}

loop

•

The wcheck operator returns false on stdout and stderr even though
the streams are writable.

•

Lines with the same non-integer widths may appear to have different
thicknesses. Lines with butt end caps may have protruding dots at
the ends of the lines.

•

Character placement is incorrect for rotations of 90.0 and 270.0 at
some point sizes.

•

Zero-width lines that extend past the sheet boundary may crash the
previewer.

•

Using the nulldevice operator followed at any time by a showpage
will cause a fatal error in the previewer.

•

The settransfer operator affects value and setting of currentgray. The
settransfer should leave the currentgray value unchanged, but does
not.

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-13

2.2.12.2 Application Resource Names - The following resources can be
applied in your .Xdefaults file.
PSViewer*pixmapCacheSize:

integer

The previewer keeps a cache of pages. If the value is greater than 1, the
previewer can display previously seen pages more quickly. However, the
greater the number, the more memory used in the server. The default is
1.
PSV i ewer* f i I eNameSu ff ix:

string

This is the file name suffix used by the Open...
The default is 'ps'.
PSV i ewer* f i I eNameP ref ix :

item in the File menu.

directory name

This is the directory used by the Open .. . item in the File menu.
default is the directory from which the previewer was invoked.

The

2.2.12.3 Differences Between the Previewer and an LPS40 Printer The previewer emulates an LPS40 printer. However, it has several
exceptions:
•
The resolution on a laser printer is 300 dpi while the screen
resolution is 75 or 100 dpi (depending on monitor size). This
resolution discrepancy makes text at small point sizes (below 12point) and lines with non-integer widths appear jagged (have
rendering artifacts).

You can eliminate some line artifacts by following the example in/
Section 9.3 of the PostScript Language Program Design from Adobe.
•

The operator stack size on the LPS40 printer is 500; the stack size
for the previewer is 2048.

•

The size of the dictionary stack on the LPS40 printer is 20; the
corresponding limit in the previewer is 2048.

•

The implementation of the quit operator is different. In the
previewer it is effectively a null operator.
The #copies operator has no effect in the previewer.

•

2.2.13
The dxwm Window Manager
This section provides notes on the following aspects of the dxwm window
manager:

•

Naming windows and icons

•

Handling mapping requests

2-14 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

2.2.13.1 Naming Windows and Icons - The dxwm window manager
currently lets you name windows and icons. Client programs can specify
their names by using the XA_WM_NAME and XA_WM_ICON_NAME
properties that are defined by DECwindows.

The dxwm window manager uses the values of these properties when it
decorates the client window or icon. If the client does not specify a value
for the XA_WM_ICON_NAME property, dxwm uses the one set for the
XA_WM_N AME property for the icon as well.
The following provides an example of how to define the name of a window
by using the Xlib XChangeProperty function.
main ( ) {
Window win;
int winW, winH;
int winX, winY;
XSetWindowAttributes xswa;
/*
open the display */
wi nW
600;
winH = 600;
winX = (DisplayWidth(dpy,0)-winW)>>l;
winY = (DisplayHeight(dpy,0)-winW)>>l;
xswa.event_mask = 0
xswa.background_pixel = BlackPixel (dpy,0);
win= XCreateWindow(dpy,RootWindow(dpy,0),winX,winY,winW,winH,O, \
DefaultDepth(dpy,0), lnputOutput,DefaultVisual (dpy,O), \
CWEventMask I CWBackP i xe I , &xswa);
XChangeProperty (dpy,win,XA_WM_NAME,XA_STRING,8,PropModeReplace, \
My Window ,9);
11

Notes

Do not type the backslashes ( "-) ; they are used as continuation
characters and are displayed for text formatting reasons only.

The XA_WM_NAME property specifies which property is to be
changed, while XA_STRING specifies its data type.

The 8 argument indicates that the data is in 8-bit format.

The PropModeReplace argument indicates that the previous
associated information is to be discarded. For further

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-15

information, see the Guide to the Xlib Library: C Language
Binding.
The specified string "My Window" is the new name for the
X.A_WM_NAME property, and the 9 argument indicates that
the string has nine characters.
To change the icon name, substitute X.A_WM_ICON_NAME for
X.A_WM_NAME.

2.2.13.2 Handling Mapping Requests - If you are using the dxwm
window manager and are running an application that does not handle
exposure events, you may see nothing in the window that you create even
if you make calls to flush the output buffer.

This problem occurs because the server does not consider a request to map
a window finished as soon as it sends the request to the window manager.
The window, however, actually does not get mapped until after the window
manager completes its processing. After sending the map request to the
window manager, the server goes on to the next request. If the next
request is to display graphics on the same window, the following occurs:
•

First, the server issues the graphics request to the window.
However, because the window has not been mapped by the window
manager, the graphics request is discarded.

•

Next, the window manager maps the window, thus causing the server
to generate an exposure event to the client to redraw the window.

•

Finally, because the application is not written to handle exposure
events, it does not redraw the window.
The permanent solution to this problem is to have the application handle
exposure events. However, a temporary solution to use while debugging is
to request exposure events on the window as part of the initial call to
XCreateWindow. Then, when the window manager maps the the window,
you can wait for the exposure event before issuing the graphics request.
That is, you should issue the graphics request only after you have been
notified of the exposure event.
Note

You should not attempt to run dxwm and uwm concurrently.

2-16 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

2.3

Demonstration Programs

The following notes apply to the demonstration programs that are included
with the kit:
•
The /usr/examples/xuidemo directory contains a program that
demonstrates the XUI widgets. The program xuidemo has separate
examples of all the XUI widgets and also lets you switch the
language of the program's interface back and forth between English
and German.
The xuidemo executable and uid files are not shipped with the kit.
To create these files, execute make or make all. Do not attempt to
reinstall these files as root while in the /usr/examples/xuidemo
directory, with the make install rule, or your Makefile will be
removed.
•
The xsh command searches for a User Interface Language ( UIL) file
called xsh. uid and passes command strings contained in that file to
the shell to be executed. The xsh.uid file must be in the directory
in which you execute the xsh command.
By default, a sample UIL file is supplied in the /usr/demo/dwt
directory. To create your own UIL file, you can either copy the
/usr/demo/dwt/xsh.uil file to your current directory and modify it, or
create a new xsh.uil file. For further information, refer to the
Makefile in the /usr/demo/dwt directory.
•

•

The decburger executable and uid files are not shipped with the kit.
To create these files, execute make or make all. Do not attempt to
reinstall these files as root while in the /usr/examples/decburger
directory, with the make install rule, or your decburger.uil will be
removed.
The /usr/examples directory contains the following programs:
dxdb
Demonstrates the dxdb debugger.
DDIF_graphics
cards_db
decburger
fonts

2.4

Contains sample DDIF files.
Contains sample dxcardfiler cards.
Contains a sample RM program.
Contains an ASCII listing of the fonts that are
included with the kit.

X11 R3 Applications

This section provides notes on the following aspects of the Xl l Release 3
applications:

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-17

•
•
•
•
•
•
2.4.1

uwm
xbiff
xterm

Changes to .Xdefaults from MIT XlO
Command line syntax changes
Unsupported R3 clients

The uwm Window Manager

•

When displaying applications while running the uwm window manager,
you must specify the position and size of the application window on
the application command line, in the .Xdefaults file, or manually with
the mouse.

•

To specify the position and size of an application window with the
mouse, size the window by pressing one of the following mouse
buttons:
Left

MBl

Middle MB2

Right
•

2.4.2

MB3

Positions the upper left corner of the window at
the mouse pointer and sizes the window with a
default width and length.
Positions the starting point of the window at
the mouse pointer and sizes the window to a
width and length determined by mouse movement.
Positions the window at a default screen location
and sizes the window with a default width and length.

You should not attempt to run uwm and dxwm concurrently.

The xbiff Command

xbiff does not handle /usr/spool/mail/$user being a directory.

2.4.3

The xterm Terminal Emulator

The following notes apply to xterm:
•

If a large amount of text is displayed through an xterm window, it
can hang until the next expose event is issued. This event can be
forced by refreshing the xterm window (by moving, iconifying,
restacking it, and so on) .

•

As shipped on the kit, xterm has incorrect permissions (not set uid
root) . To correct this problem, log in as root and type the following:

2-18 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

password:
# chmod 4755 /usr/bin/xterm

•

A security feature has been added to the xterm terminal emulator.
You can set the secure mode by pressing CTRL/MB 1 and selecting
the Secure Keyboard item from the Xll xterm pull-down menu.
The window will appear in reverse video after you specify Secure
Keyboard. Also, a check mark will appear next to the Secure
Keyboard entry to indicate that security mode has been set.
All keyboard input will be directed to the secure window, even if you
have selected another window for input focus. This is useful for
keeping passwords and confidential information secure.
When you iconify a secure window, the security mode is turned off.
If you want security to be on, you must turn it on again when you
change your icon back to a window.
If you try to create a second secure window, xterm beeps, indicating
that only one emulator can be in security mode at a time.

•

A resource has been added that allows you to block keyboard and
mouse events that have been sent from a client. This resource has
been added to eliminate character strings from being sent when the
terminal is idle. This stops an unauthorized user from putting
simulated keyboard input into your xterm window, and executing
commands as you. For example, an unauthorized user could remove
a file of yours by sending an rm command while your terminal was
idle and the file would be removed.
The following resource has been added:
allowSendEvents

Specifies that clients can send keyboard and
mouse buttons events. The default is False.

•

The xterm terminal emulator does not interpret the ESC 8 and ESC
9 sequences properly. Applications that send these sequences (for
example, running the man command on some of the reference pages)
may appear to hang. If this happens, reset your terminal by
selecting "Full Reset" from the Modes pop-up menu that is invoked
with CTRL/MB2.

•

If you run the MIT R3 xterm, you may encounter problems
highlighting text when the xterm window is partially obscured by the
right edge of the screen. You should refrain from using the MIT R3
xterm terminal emulator.

•

The - C option does not work and prevents xterm from coming up
when used as a system login window.

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-19

•

If a process is running in background on a local xterm and the

window is killed, the output from the background process may be
seen when the next rlogin is performed.

2.4.4

Changes to .Xdefaults from MIT X10

The new Xll R3 clients (for example, xterm and xmh) will not work with
existing .Xdefaults files. Use the /usr/skel/.Xdefaults file supplied in the kit
as a guide for modifying your Xdefaults. A brief summary of the types of
changes you will need to make follows:
•

Resource name wildcarding uses an asterisk ( * ) instead of a period

( .) .

•

Some minor changes have been made to resource names; use
/usr/skel/.Xdefaults as a guide for this.

•

Ensure that font names in your .Xdefaults file correspond to font
names supplied in the kit. Some of the MIT clients dump core if
you give them an invalid font name.

•

Use an exclamation point ( ! ) for comments instead of a number sign
The session manager is able to deal with both, but xrdb (see
below) does not handle the number sign unless a special command
line option is specified.
( #) .

•

The .Xdefaults file is preprocessed by the session manager or xrdb
before it is downloaded to the server. As a result of this
preprocessing, comments are stripped out along with portions of the
.Xdefaults file that are taken out by #ifdef statements.

•

All translation tables are now specified in the .Xdefaults file.
design makes the .XtActions file obsolete.

This

All Xll clients (MIT and DECwindows) use only the .Xdefaults file
downloaded to the X server (by the session manager at session start or by
xrdb). This means that all .Xdefaults files on machines other than your
workstation are irrelevant. Any edits to your workstation .Xdefaults file
are not effective until they get downloaded to your server. You can force
the session manager to download the file by logging out and logging back
in or by typing the following:
3 xrdb .Xdefaults

For more information, see xrdb( lX) in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.

2-20 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

2.4.5

•

Command Line Syntax Changes

While specifying a display variable on the command line, you must
precede it with a - d or a - display option. For example:
3 /usr/bin/xterm -d dorothy:O

•

2.4.6

Geometry specifications must be preceded by the - geometry option.

Unsupported R3 Clients

Some of the unsupported MIT R3 clients (specifically, xkill and xwd) run
better with the uwm window manager than with the standard DECwindows
window manager, dxwm.
When used with dxwm, xkill kills dxwm instead of the pointed-to window.
When used with dxwm, xwd saves the entire screen instead of the pointedto window.

2.5

DECwindows Fonts

This section provides notes on screen font functionality. The software
includes the following:
•
The full ULTRIX Worksystem Software Version 2.0 font set for both
75-dpi and 100-dpi color/monochrome displays. This library of 464
fonts provides:·

•

Custom-designed ULTRIX Worksystem Software Version 2.0
menu and label fonts
Special dxterm terminal emulator fonts in both large and normal
sizes
A font compiler (/usr/bin/xfc) for compiling binary distribution format
font files ( .bdf files) into ULTRIX Worksystem Software Version 2.0
server natural-format font files ( .snf files).
123 75-dpi display fonts from MIT Xll Release 3. The notes below
do not apply to the MIT fonts.

The following sections discuss:
Font file names
•

•
•
•
•

Access to font names
Understanding font names
Font properties
Font problems

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-21

2.5.1

Font File Names

The following notes apply to font file names:
•
•

All font file names are in lowercase.
All font file names have .snf appended to them.

•

Previously, the font file names were not called out explicitly but were
grouped by font family and style. The font file names are not used
by applications or defaults files; the important element is the font
name.

2.5.2

Access to Font Names

The font names for the ULTRIX W orksystem Software font library are
listed in the /usr/examples/fonts directory, in the files fontnames.75dpi for
75-dpi fontnames and fontnames.1 OOdpi for 100-dpi fonts. If your monitor
is a 19-inch monitor, then your screen density is 75 dpi. If your monitor
is a 15-inch monitor, then your screen density is 100 dpi.
ULTRIX Worksystem Software Version 2.0 applications and default files
can access fonts by using file names or by using font names. File names
must end in .snf and must be in a directory that is in the server's search
path. The preferred approach, however, is to use font names. A font
name consists of a series of parameter values separated by hyphens.
Access by font name is used for both the font name pattern argument
(with optional wildcards) and the returned font name list by XFontNames
and XFontNamesWithlnfo, and as an input argument to XFont to open and
load a screen font.
ULTRIX Worksystem Software Version 2.0 applications specifying default
fonts in their .Xdefaults files also use this font-naming convention,
substituting wildcard characters for fields to be filled in at startup by the
application. For example, you may specify FAMILY_NAME,
WEIGHT_NAME, and POINT_SIZE for a default font, but not specify
RESOLUTION_X, RESOLUTION_Y, and PIXEL_SIZE to get the correct
physical font size automatically independent of the resolution of the display.
The application using this default would then fill in the resolution and
other significant fields and query the server to obtain a list of possible
fonts before attempting to open them. For ULTRIX Worksystem Software
Version 2.0, a simple font selection algorithm that always chooses the first
font match is implemented because servers are guaranteed to supply the
font library. In the future, application defaults are planned to be accessed
by an options menu scheme.
Servers also support wildcarding the font name argument given directly to
an OpenFont request, avoiding the use of ListFonts * to select an available
font. Note, however, that the server's algorithm for choosing a font from
an ambiguous font name pattern is server dependent.
2-22 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

2.5.3

Understanding Font Names

When using either routine, pass the display identifier and font name.
font names consist of the following fields, in left-to-right order:
1.

Foundry that supplied the font, or the font designer

2.
3.

Typeface family of the font
Weight

Style (roman, italic, oblique, reverse italic, or reverse oblique)

Width per horizontal unit of the font

Additional style font identifier

Pixel font size

8.
9.

Point size
Resolution in pixels/dots per inch

10.

Spacing ( monospaced, proportional, or character cell)

11.

Average width of all characters in the font

12.

Set character encoding

Xlib

The .full name of a representative font in /usr/lib/X11/fonts/decwin/screen100
is as follows:
-ADOBE-ITC Avant Garde\
Gothic-Book-R-Normal--14-100-100-100-P-80-IS08859-1

Note that in this and the following examples, you should do not type the
backslash character ( '0, which is used here as a continuation character.
The font is named "ITC Avant Garde Gothic." The font weight is book,
font style is roman, and width between font units is normal.
The pixel size is 14 pixels and the decipoint size is 100.
Horizontal and vertical resolution in dots per inch ( dpi) is 100. When the
number of dots per inch is 100, 14 pixels are required to be a 10-point
font.
The font is proportionally spaced.
Character encoding is IS08859-1.

Average width of characters is 80.

The following is an example of the full name of the comparable font
designed for a 75-dpi system, in /usr/lib/X11 /fonts/decwin/screen75:
-ADOBE-ITC Avant Garde\
Gothic-Book-R-Normal--10-100-75-75-P-59-IS08859-1

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-23

This font requires 10 pixels to be 10 points. This font differs from the
previous font only in pixel size, resolution, and character width.
Xlib enables clients to substitute a question mark for a single character
and an asterisk for one or more fields in a font name. The following
shows how to specify a 10-point ITC Avant Garde Gothic font of book
weight, roman style, and normal spacing for display on either 75-dpi or
100-dpi systems:
-ADOBE-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Book-R-Normal--*-100-*-*-P-*

When you use the asterisk, be sure that the substitutions are defined
clearly. For example, the following font name specifies two fonts:
-ADOBE-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Book-R-Normal--*-100-*-P-*

In this example, the leftmost asterisk substitutes for all fields before the
100. The name defines the following two fonts:
-ADOBE-ITC Avant Garde\
Gothic-Book-R-Normal--11-80-100-100-P-80-IS08859-1
-ADOBE-ITC Avant Garde\
Gothic-Book-R-Normal--14-100-100-100-P-80-IS08859-1

The first is an 8-point font; the second is a 10-point font.
2.5.4

Font Properties

The font properties generally include the font name fields, plus other useful
global font information such as the height of capitals (CAP_HEIGHT),
calculated weight and setwidth (WEIGHT and SETWIDTH), and so on.
All ULTRIX W orksystem Software fonts (except Terminal) have at least
the following properties (more will be added in the future):
FONT_ASCENT
FONT_DESCENT
DEFAULT_CHAR
X_HEIGHT
WEIGHT
POINT_SIZE
FACE_NAME
COPYRIGHT
FAMILY_NAME
FONT_NAME_REGISTRY
FOUNDRY
WEIGHT_NAME

2-24 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

SLANT
SETWIDTH_NAME
ADD_STYLE_NAME
PIXEL_SIZE
RESOLUTION_X
RESOLUTION_Y
AVERAGE_WIDTH
CHARSET_REGISTRY
CHARSET_ENCODING
CHARSET_COLLECTIONS
CAP_HEIGHT
NOTICE

2.5.5

Font Problems

All terminal fonts contain some incorrectly encoded glyphs, and do not
contain the appropriate font name properties.
Not all applications currently handle 100-dpi fonts gracefully.

2.6

The Xlib Library

The following notes apply to the Xlib library functions:
•

If you send a ClientMessage event, then you must set the format

member of its XClientMessageEvent structure. The valid choices are
8, 16, and 32. If you do not set this member, then the client that
receives the event will exit with an internal Xlib error.
A ClientMessage event has room for client-supplied data, and the
format member tells whether this data should be viewed as a list of
bytes, short integers, or long integers. You must set the format
member even if you do not have any client-supplied data.
•

When you use the XWriteBitMapFile routine, the #define macros will
include the file extensions instead of removing them as expected.
This problem applies to all file extensions. For example, if you
specify the file name as foo.dat the #define statement will look like:
#define foo.dat_width n

instead of:
#define foo_width n

•

The FORTRAN bindings for the Xlib C language routines solve the
conflicts between FORTRAN and C calling conventions when you call
Xlib routines from FORTRAN. The FORTRAN bindings provide
compatibility with C naming and calling conventions.
When compiling a FORTRAN program including calls to the C entry
points, you must include the library and the Xlib libraries in the
command as follows:
f77 -o program_name object_ffle_list /usr/lib/libF77.a - IX11 - loldX

The /usr/include/X11/xlibF77.h header file contains the FORTRAN
constants and structures equivalent to the Xlib C definitions. With
the exception of a few instances, the names are equivalent to the C
naming conventions. They differ whenever a constant name differs
with another only by the fact they are of different cases or whenever
a structure begins with an underscore. The names have been
changed as follows:

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-25

KeyS ym definitions differing in name only by case have been
resolved by appending _le to the name containing the lowercase
character. For example, XK_a was renamed to XK_a__lc.
Structures beginning with an underscore have an capital X
prepended to the name. _XExtension, _XAsyncltem, and
_XQEvent were renamed to X_XExtension, X_XAsyncltem,
and X_XQEvent, respectively.
When using a FORTRAN function, it must be declared as an
integer* 4. For example, XOpenDisplay should be declared as
integer* 4 XOpenDisplay. Functions that return character strings
such as XDisplayName, XDisplayString, XGetAtomName,
XKeysymToString, and XServerVendor must be declared as
returning a character array of a specific size. For example,
XDisplayNamewould variable being assigned the returned string
is an array of at least 20 characters.
The XlO compatibility functions, resource manager routines, and
the XSetFontPath routine are not supported by the Fortran
bindings. The calling conventions for the following functions
have changed:
XFetchName
Status XFetchName(display, w, window_name)
Display *display;
/*Specifies connection to X Server.
Window w;
/*Specifies window. */
char *window_name; /* Returns the window name. */

XGetlconName
Status XGetlconName(display, w, icon_name)
Display *display;
/*Specifies connection to X Server. */
Window w;
/* Specifies window. */
char *icon_name;
/* Returns the icon name. */

XSetCommand
Status XSetCommand(display, w)
Display *display;
/*Specifies connection to X Server. */
Window w;
/*Specifies the window. */

XSetStandard Properties
SetStandardProperties(display, w, window_name, icon_name,
icon_pixmap, hints)
Display *display;
/*Specifies connection to X Server.
Window w;
char *window_name; /*Specifies the window. */

(continued on next page)

2-26 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

char *icon_name;
/*Specifies the window name. */
Pixmap icon_pixmap; /*Specifies the icon_name. */
XSizeHints *hints; /*Specifies a pointer to the size hints*/

XrmGetResource
Bool XrmGetResource(database, str_name, str_class, str_type,
st r _ type_ return , st r _ v a I u e_ return)
XrmDatabase database; /*Specifies the database*/
char *str_name;
/*Specifies the value name*/
char *str_class;
/*Specifies the class name*/
char *str_type_return; /*Returns the destination's type*/
XrmValue *value_ return; /*Returns the value in the database*/

2. 7

The XUI Toolkit

The following notes apply to the XUI Toolkit:
•

•

The XUI Toolkit widget development suggests that programmers not
count on the size of the core part record as a fixed size but rather
obtain the size at widget initialization time. This is so that users do
not have to recompile their programs whenever a new version of
DECwindows is released. Thus, indices and part offsets are used to
access fields in user's widgets. For further information, see the
Guide to the XU! Toolkit: C Language Binding.
When developing widgets on a RISC-based system, however,
unpredictable results occur and the widget do not operate correctly if
the index is greater than 255.
The XUI Toolkit main include files DECwDwtApplProg.h and
DECwDwtWidgetProg.h have been renamed to DwtAppl.h and
DwtWidget. h to accommodate file name restrictions of some platforms.
Also, the UIL main include file DECwDwtApplProg.uil has been
renamed to DwtAppl.uil. The old names may still be used on
platforms that support them. Do not use the old names; support will
be dropped in a future release.
An XtSetValues function on the attachments of a child of an attached
dialog box can result in an infinite loop. Attachments should be set
up when the child is created.
In most cases you can also avoid this problem by performing the
XtSetValues while the widget is unmanaged.
The dxsession print screen capability and the dxcardfiler and dxpaint
programs use the DECwindows print widget. The following applies to
the use of the print widget in these applications.

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-27

The print dialog box is used in many applications for the queueing of
files or screens to a printer. By default, all printing devices on the
system are displayed in the Printers list box. With this release,
however, a new feature allows print queues to be associated with
print formats through the definition of environment variables. The
environment variable is defined to be a comma-separated or spaceseparated list of print queues with the first queue being the default
choice. For example, if DECwPrinterFormatANSl2 is defined to be
MY_PRINTER,LOCAL_LN03, when you select ANSl2 from the print
format listbox, only MY_PRINTER,LOCAL_LN03, and
ANOTHER_LN03 will be shown in the printer listbox, with
MY_PRINTER being the default choice.
The environment variable names and the print formats associated
with each are as follows:

•

Environment Variable

Print Format

DECwPrinterFormatText
DECwPrinterFormatLine
DECwPrinterFormatTerm
DECwPrinterFormatANSI2
DECwPrinterFormatANSI
DECwPrinterFormatPS
DECwPrinterFormatReGIS
DECwPrinterFormatTek
DECwPrinterFormatDDFF
DECwPrinterFormatDDIF

Text
Line printer
Terminal
ANSI2
ANSI
PostScript
ReGIS
Tektronix
DDFF
DDIF

If text is entered into the DECwindows text widget and wraps line
boundaries, carriage return characters are not automatically inserted,
and the resulting text will be truncated when printed.

For example, if you create a mail message using dxmail, enter text
that wraps across line boundaries, and then try to print that mail
message, the lines will be truncated.
To work around this problem, enter carriage return characters when
typing long lines in the text widget.
If you would like the text widget to have emacs-like key bindings,
add the following text bindings to your .Xdefaults file:

2-28 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

!DECtoolkit

text bindings
!
#override\n\
*DwtText.Translations:
beginning-of-I ine()\n\
Ctr I <Key >a:
backward-character()\n\
Ctr I <Key>b:
delete-next-character()\n\
Ctr I <Key>d:
end-of- Ii ne()\n\
Ctr I <Key>e:
forward-character()\n\
Ctr I <Key>f:
Ctr I <Key>j:
new Ii ne-and- indent ()\n\
ki I I-to-end-of-I ine()\n\
Ctr I <Key >k:
next- Ii ne()\n\
Ctr I <Key >n:
new Ii ne-and-backup()\n\
Ctr I <Key>o:
previous-I ine()\n\
Ctr I <Key >P:
ki I I-to-start-of- Ii ne()\n\
Ctr I <Key >u:
next-page()\n\
Ctr I <Key >v:
delete-previous-word()\n\
Ctr I <Key>w:
unk i I I() \n\
Ctr I <Key >Y:
scrol l-one-1 ine-up()\n\
Ctr I <Key >Z:
backward-word()\n\
Mod 1 <Key >b:
delete-next-word()\n\
Mod 1 <Key >d:
forward-word()\n\
Mod 1 <Key >f :
previous-page()\n\
Mod 1 <Key >V:
scrol l-one-1 ine-down()\n\
Mod 1 <Key >Z:

•
•

The help widget does not support XtSetValues of many text
resources.
There is a problem with widgets that pop up spring-loaded widgets
directly over themselves. The first widget will not see the
LeaveWindow event that is produced as the popped-up widget is
mapped into the pointer location. This is due to a problem in the
event-dispatching mechanism in the MIT R3 intrinsics.
For example, a widget specifies the following translation syntax:
<EnterWindow>:
<LeaveWindow>:
<Btn2Down>:

high I ight()
un_highl ight()
popup_menu()

When the pointer enters the widget's window, the widget is
highlighted. When MB2 is pressed, the pop-up menu is displayed.
A LeaveWindow event should be dispatched to unhighlight the widget
as the pointer is moved into the pop-up menu. This LeaveWindow
event is not delivered and the widget is left in the highlighted state
when the menu pops down.
•

XUI Toolkit dialog boxes perform an XGrabKey on the TAB key so
that they can synchronously transfer focus to the next child within
the dialog box. If a dialog box receives a TAB key while the
Toolkit is filtering events (for example, while another modal dialog
box is up), the original dialog box will not see the TAB event and

ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes 2-29

•
•

•

will never call XAllowEvents to unfreeze the keyboard. If this
happens, exit from the application and start it again to unfreeze the
keyboard.
For the list box widget, the shift MB 1 double-click for the extended
confirm callback is not supported.
To avoid confusion between XUI Toolkit intrinsics header files and
Xll R3 intrinsics header files, mit is used in the path. The Xll
R3 header files are not merged with the XUI Toolkit header files.
To avoid changing your source files, update your Makefiles with the
following line: -1/usr/include/mit.
The FORTRAN bindings for the XUI Toolkit C language routines
solve the conflicts between FORTRAN and C calling conventions
when you call XUI Toolkit functions from FORTRAN. The
FORTRAN bindings provide compatibility with C naming and calling
conventions.
When compiling a FORTRAN program including calls to the XUI
Toolkit entry points, you must include the library, the C XUI
Toolkit library, and the Xlib library in the command as follows:
f77 -o program object_fi/,e_list /usr/lib/libdwtF77.a - ldwt - IX11 - loldX
The /usr/include/X11/xlibF77.h file contains the FORTRAN constants
and structures equivalent to the XUI Toolkit C definitions.
When using a FORTRAN function, it must be declared as an
integer* 4. For example, XtOpenDisplay should be declared as
integer* 4 XtOpenDisplay.
The interface for the FORTRAN binding for DwtOpenHierarchy is as
follows to accommodate the file_names_list:
int DwtOpenHierachy(num_files, name_len, names_ list,
an c i I I a r y _st r u ct u res_ I i st ,
h i er arch y _ i d_ return)
D r me o u n t n um_ f i I e s ;
I * t h e n um be r o f f i I e s i n f i I e
names I i st . *I
int name_ fen;
/*length of each file name.*/
String *fife_names_fist;
/*array of file names.*/
IDBOSOpenParamPtr *anci I lary_structures_ I ist;
DRMHierarchy *hierarchy_ id_ return;
/* an identifier of the ORM
hierarchy. */

2-30 ULTRIX Worksystem Software Notes

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3

The notes in this chapter pertain specifically to the base operating system
software that is part of the ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0
(RISC) and ULTRIX-32, Version 3.0 (RISC) kits. This chapter discusses:
•
Differences between RISC-based and VAX-based systems
•
Hints for porting software to RISC-based systems
•
•
•

Compliance with operating system standards
Network File System
Programming notes

•
•
•

Libraries
Compiler notes
Commands and utilities

•
•

System facilities
Networking and communications

•

Standards and external specifications

•

Miscellaneous known problems

3.1

Differences Between RISC-Based and VAX-Based
Systems

The notes in this section pertain to the differences between RISC-based
and VAX-based systems. The remainder of this section discusses:
•
•

Components not in RISC-based systems
Components that differ

•

Components on RISC-based systems only

•

Unsupported components on RISC-based systems

3.1.1
Components Not in RISC-Based Systems
The following components are not supplied with a RISC-based system:

•

adb
The adb absolute debugger has been replaced in functionality by
enhanced RISC-based version of the dbx debugger.

•

arff

This archiver is for RT-11 format devices used to make console
media for certain VAX computers.
•

kern_loop

•

Both /etc/kern_loop and /etc/kern_unloop are not applicable on RISCbased systems.
lk

•

This linker is for use with VAX C and VAX FORTRAN only. It
has been replaced by the linker that is provided with the RISC
compiler system.
libg
This library is not supported on RISC-based systems.

•

makespt

The /etc/makespt utility has to do with placement of kernel structures
and is VAX dependent.
•

mkconsole

This system maintenance command is not supported on RISC-based
systems.
•

profiling
The /usr/lib/lib* _p.a profiling library, which is linked when a user
wishes to profile program performance, is not supported on RISCbased systems. It has been replaced by the profiling package that is
provided with the RISC compiler system.

•

radisk
This command is for maintaining Digital Storage Architecture ( DSA)
disks, which are not supported on RISC-based systems.
rxformat

This command formats floppy disks, which are currently not
supported on RISC-based systems.
•

sizer

This program, which sizes the VAX hardware, is not supported on
RISC-based systems.

3-2 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

•

symorder

This command reorders the symbol table in the kernel and is not
needed.

•

vcc
The VAX C compiler produces VAX machine code and is replaced
with cc, the RISC C compiler.

•

2780/3780

These commands are part of the RJE 2780/3780 emulator package,
and because there is no synchronous port, they are not supported for
RISC-based systems
3.1.2

Components that Differ

The following components differ on RISC-based and VAX-based systems:
•

Executable images
Executable images on RISC-based systems are larger and therefore
take up more disk space than their counterparts on VAX-based
systems. This is due to the instruction set of the RISC architecture.
Typically images on RISC-based systems are 30 to 40 percent larger
than on VAX-based systems.

•

Shared memory segments
The attach points for Shared Memory Segments ( SMS) in the virtual
address space of a process are different than on VAX-based systems.
SMS are attached by means of the shmat system call and, by
default, fall between the text segment and the private data segment.
This means that the problem of private data segment expansion (by
using the sbrk or brk system call) being restricted by an attached
SMS does not exist on RISC-based systems. Programs should let
the system default the attach address, whenever possible. For more
details, see shmop( 2) in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.
Attach points for Shared Memory Segments ( SMS) in the virtual
address space of a process must be aligned on 4-Mbyte boundaries.
SMS are attached by means of the shmat system call. Processes
that permit the system to default the attach points will find that
they are properly aligned. Processes that explicitly attach to a given
address will find that the attach will succeed only if the given
address is 4-Mbyte aligned or if the SHM_RND flag is set. Note
that the latter case will cause the address to be round down to a 4Mbyte boundary. This restriction is imposed by hardware constraints.
Programs should let the system default the attach address whenever
possible. For more details, see shmop( 2) in the ULTRIX Reference
Pages.
ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-3

•

floating
There is no floating or double in the kernel. The FPU is assigned
to a process, and the kernel manipulates scalars only. The fixpoint.h
header file contains macros to convert an integer to its floating point
format. User programs can use this.

•

float-fmt
VAX processors typically use dfloat floating-point format. RISC
processors use IEEE floating-point format (close to gfloat). Thus, on
RISC-based systems, there will be greater range of floating numbers
but less precision (fewer decimal places).
Programs that need the extra precision of dfloat will have problems.
Programs that need to be cognizant of the low-level format of floating
point numbers also will have problems. This will be true in RISCbased systems FORTRAN or any language that does floating-point
work.
In addition, there is no equivalent to dfloat or hfloat.

•

page size
The page size on a RISC-based system is 4 Kbytes ( 4*1024) by
contrast to 1 Kbyte on VAX-based system. Programs should use the
getpagesize system call or include vmmac.h and use the macros for
page size manipulations. For further information, see getpagesize( 2)
in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.

•

config
The smmax, smmin, and smbrk shared memory config parameters on
RISC-based systems are in 4 Kbyte pages. On VAX-based systems,
they are in 512-byte pages.
The config program has been moved to sys/mips/mips/config/config in
contrast to /etc/config. There is a symbolic link from /etc/config. In
addition, some new features have been added on RISC-based systems.
Because of the 4 Kbyte page size, certain virtual memory sizing
parameters are now 4Kbyte pages.

•

csh

The RISC version of csh is based on different sources from the VAX
version, is functionally equivalent to it, and has 8-bit character
support.

3-4 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

•

prof

The RISC version of prof is functionally different form then VAX
version. For further information, see prof( 1) in the ULTRIX
Reference Pages.
•

ran lib

The ranlib command organizes archives of object files to allow faster
linking. While it still exists for RISC-based systems, it is a shell
script to pass a flag to the ar librarian, which then performs the
same function.
•

lint

Some differences in the messages printed and the conditions checked
do exist between the RISC and VAX versions of lint. To build lint
libraries, use one of the following:
3 lint -C libname myprog.c (VAX-based systems)
3 lint -c myprog.c (RISC-based systems)

Note that the command line on RISC-based systems uses System V
syntax.
•

nlist

Because RISC-based systems use COFF format for object files, this
structure is different from that used on VAX-based systems.
Programs that had hard-coded initializations that assumed the VAX
nli~t structure will have to be changed.
•

•

/usr/mdec
On RISC-based systems, this directory contains bootblocks that are
installed to bootable disks.
sys
The /sys directory on RISC-based systems has been changed to allow
for both VAX and RISC kernel binaries to coexist in the same
directory structure in the future; /sys has been reorganized as follows:
BINARY=> b.mips/{BINARY, SYSNAMES}
file systems grouped: fs/{gfs,ufs,nfs,specfs}
net grouped: net/{net,netinet,netdnet,netimp}
RISC specific: mips/{mips, ... mipsif, ... }
/mips/mips/{conf ig}
sas grouped: sas/mips

ULtRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-5

•

COFF

•

RISC-based systems use the COFF format (Common Object File
Format) in its object files and load modules. Therefore, the following
utilities that make use of the object file format have been replaced
by their new versions: nm (has more symbol types), dbx, as, Id, ar,
size, and strip.
make
The System V make, which has been made backwards-compatible with
Berkeley make, is used on RISC-based systems .

•

The ps command prints out statistics on system activity.
output formats are changed slightly.
•

Some

nroff/troff

RISC-based systems have new versions, which read ASCII tables in
contrast to the VAX-based versions, which use binary object file
format tables to control output. These new versions provide the
same action as System V.
•

emacs

The /usr/new/gnuemacs command is V18.51 on RISC-based systems
and Vl 7.nn on VAX-based systems.
•

disktab

•

By default, the root and swap partitions are larger on RISC-based
systems than on VAX-based systems (see /etc/disktab).
MAKE DEV
Device numbers on RISC-based systems are different from those on
VAX-based systems.

•

a.out.h

This header file does not include exec.h on RISC-based systems, as it
does on VAX-based systems.
•

brk

On VAX-based systems, the program's virtual address space begins at
zero. Text starts at zero and runs to &etext. Data then follows to
&edata. The bss segment then follows to &end, and the rest is
available for growth.
On RISC-based systems, the virtual address space begins at
Ox00400000. Text starts at Ox00400000 and runs to &etext. There
is a gap to OxlOOOOOOO, where the data begins. Data runs to &edata,
is followed by bss to &end, and the rest is available for growth.

3-6 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

The major implication here is the interaction between brk and
getrlimit. On VAX-based systems, doing a getrlimit for
RLIMIT_DATA was a possible approximation for the maximum value
that could be passed to brk. On RISC-based systems, the correct
value is:
11

the value

returned by a getrlimit

+OxlOOOOOOO;

On VAX-based systems, the correct value is:
11

•

the value

returned by a getrlimit +&etext.
11

One solution is to use sbrk, not brk.
cc
The RISC C compiler is a new version of cc.
differences should be noted:

The following

This version of cc does not support the const keyword.
Pointers in RISC-based systems are unsigned, and in VAX-based
systems, they are signed.
On RISC-based systems, you cannot dereference NULL pointers;
includes arg to strlen.
asm is not supported on RISC-based systems in any form.
The RISC C compiler does not allow "old-fashioned
initialization." An example of this, which worked on VAX-based
systems but gave a warning, and does not work on RISC-based
systems is "int i O;".
varargs is different on RISC-based systems. Any program that
tries to walk the argument list by taking the address of an
argument and incrementing it will not be successful, especially
for double precision arguments. Programs using the macros in
varargs.h will work. Compiling with the -varargs option on
RISC-based systems will attempt to detect nonportable code.

The setjmp/longjmp buffer is larger on RISC-based systems.
Programs with a hard-coded 10 word buffer will fail; programs
that correctly include < setjmp.h > and declare a 'jmp_buf' will
work correctly.
The RISC C compiler has boundary alignment rules. User
programs should only see this as a performance issue (the
kernel does fix-ups). It is better, however, to align doublewords, words and half-words on natural boundaries. See uac( 1)
in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-7

Pointers cannot be used as the variable on switch statements on
RISC-based systems.
The RISC C compiler will not allow the same .c or .o file to
be listed twice. It will generate doubly defined symbol errors;
the VAX C compiler ( cc) allowed this.
On VAX-based systems, the cc -L option on the command line
collectively affects - I options. On RISC-based systems, the cc
- L option is seen strictly left to right. Therefore, if a - L is
supposed to affect a -1, the - L must come first.
On RISC-based systems, global symbols do not have an extra
leading underscore. This mostly affects assembler programmers.
The -R option (read-only text) is not supported.
The - Md or - Mg options are not needed on RISC-based
systems; the hardware has only one double precision format.
RISC-based systems define a macro (for example,
LANGUAGE_C) for the preprocessor that makes it possible to
write multilingual include files.
For cpp predefined symbols, ultrix, unix, and bsd4_2are both
RISC-based and VAX-based systems. On RISC-based systems,
the equivalent predefined symbol of vax is mips and MIPSEL
and hosLmips are also defined.
The following RISC C compiler options are not supported on
VAX-based system: - I (no dirname); - P ( preprocess, produce
.i); -Wphase,opt; RISC-based systems recognize the environment
variables ROOTDIR and TMPDIR; -cpp and -nocpp (most
useful for languages other than C); - G (relevant only to RISC
architecture), - j, - k, and - ko (relevant only to RISC-based
systems compiler design); - std (warn nonstd usage; vcc has - V
standard= portable); -volatile and -varargs (modify compiler
behavior in certain areas); - V (print versions); and - EB and
- EL (see the Guide to Languages and Programming for RISC
Processors).
•

Profiling on VAX-based systems has two levels that can be selected
with the -p and -pg options. Profiling on RISC-based systems also
has two levels that can be selected with the - p option or by running
the post-processor pixie program. The RISC C compiler is not
affected by either option; all work is done in the assembler or loader
(or postprocessor).

•

One level of optimization exists on VAX-based systems, which is off
by default and enabled with the - 0 option. Five levels of
optimization exist on RISC-based systems. By default, the 2nd level

3-8 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

is used, which can be disabled with the - 00 option. The - 0 or
- 02 options invoke something comparable to VAX-level optimization,
and there are rather more complex processes that can be used with
-03 and -04 options. RISC-based systems also have the -Olimit
option that allows optimization to be bypassed with overly complicated
code sections.
•

On both RISC-based and VAX-based systems, the -t and -8 options
specify passes and paths; however, the pass names for -t differ
(there are more on RISC-based systems), and the semantics of - B
belong to the - h option. The - B option is used to specify a
command suffix instead. RISC-based systems also have the - H, - K,
and - # options that are designed for compiler development work.

•

Like optimization, RISC-based systems offer four levels for debugging
information (controlled by the - g option). VAX-based systems have
only two ( on and off) .

•

If a global data item is used as if it were a code location (for
example, if a data structure has the same name as a system call) ,
an error message similar to following will be printed at load time:
/lib/libc.a(gethostent.o): jump relocation out-of-range, bad object
file produced, can't jump from Ox4197a0 to Ox10008198 (stat)

If this happens, you should change the name of the data structure
(in this example, it was named stat) .
3.1.3

Components on RISC-Based Systems Only

The following components are only supplied on RISC-based systems:
•

btou and utob

These compiler tools convert between ucode and binary formats.
•

cord

•

This is the code reorganizer for the compiler.
dis

•

This is the disassembler.
odump

•

This utility produces formated dumps of object files.
pixie

•

This utility provides program profiling.
ppu
This produces pretty print ucode (intermediate compiler code) .

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-9

•

rzdisk

This utility is used to format, scan, and reassign bad blocks on SCSI
disks.
•

showsnf
This DECwindows command displays the natural format of font files
that the server uses.

•

std ump

This utility dumps the symbol table of object files.
•

uac

This command is used to control printing of unaligned access
messages.
•

uld

This is the ucode (compiler intermediate) loader.
3.1.4

Unsupported Components on RISC-Based Systems

The following games, commands, and programs are not part of the
ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0 (RISC) or ULTRIX-32,
Version 3.0 (RISC) kits.
•

adventure (game)

•

apl ( apl interpreter)

•

cpm ( /usr/new/cpm)

•

doctor (game)

•

f77 (BSD FORTRAN 77 version)

•

hyper ( /usr/new/hyper)

•

icon (icon programming language)

•

ingres (university version of INGRES)

•

lisp (BSD Franz Lisp)

•

modula ( Modula-2 compiler)

•

spms ( /usr/new/spms)

3.2

Hints for Porting Software to RISC-Based Systems

The following are provided as helpful hints for porting software to a RISCbased system:

3-10 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

•

NULL pointers
On VAX-based systems, a null pointer can be dereferenced because
page zero of user process space is mapped and valid. On RISCbased systems, however, you cannot dereference a null pointer without
a segmentation violation. The pointer must be tested for non-NULL
first.

•

Alignment
On VAX-based systems, short words ( 2 bytes) or long words ( 4
bytes) can be accessed on any byte boundary. On RISC-based
systems, however, references must be "naturally aligned." Short
words ( 2 bytes) must be on an even byte boundary. Long words ( 4
bytes) must be accessed on a boundary evenly divisible by 4.
Unaligned accesses in user programs cause a "trap" into the kernel
(the system attempts to "fixup" the unaligned access). If the
system is able to accomplish the fixup, a message is printed to the
controlling tty (if there is one) stating at what pc the alignment
error was encountered. If the system is not able to fixup the
unaligned access, the process will be terminated with a SIGBUS (bus
error) signal. Doing the fixups for the program does have a
performance impact on the program. For further information, see
uac( 1) in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.

•

Signed and unsigned pointers
On VAX-based systems, if a pointer type function returns a -1 as an
error status, the comparison "if ( ptr < 0) " can be made, because
pointers are signed values.
On RISC-based systems, if a pointer type function returns a -1 as
an error status, the comparison "if ( ptr < 0) " will never be true,
because pointers are unsigned values. (Thus, the compiler removes
the code for the comparison.) The error returns are not caught.
The comparison could be "if ( (int) ptr < 0) " or "if ( ptr = = (char
*) -1) If.

•

Variable number of arguments
On RISC-based systems, a set of macros exists to declare formal
parameters and access arguments in a list of a variable number of
arguments. For further information, see /usr/include/varargs.h (or
/sys/h/varargs.h).

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-11

3.3

Compliance with Operating System Standards

This release of the base operating system, contains improvements and
modifications to the system calls and library routines to meet or exceed
compliance with a number of industry standards. These standards are
recognized as the means to make an operating system independent of
vendors' hardware. The standards to which the base operating system
conforms are the System V Interface Definition ( SVID), POSIX, and
X/OPEN standards.
The ULTRIX-32 Operating System has been improved by adding support
for SVID termio, and by fixing known SVID inconsistencies. In addition,
System V terminfo and curses are now supported. SVID support for this
release will be based on SVID Issue 2, Volume 1, with some Volume 3
additions.
The ULTRIX-32 Operating System is compatible with the Portable
Operating System Interface for Computer Environments ( POSIX), IEEE
P1003.l standard.
The ULTRIX-32 Operating System also contains changes to conform to the
XIOPEN Portability Guide. The X/OPEN group plans to adopt the POSIX
standard as its base when this standard is finalized.

3.4

Network File System

The notes in this section pertain to the NFS software.
discusses:
•
NFS file and record locking
•
3.4.1

This section

NFS server security changes
NFS File and Record Locking

The Network File System has been extended to support System V and
POSIX-compatible file and record locking across the network. The lock
manager and status monitor programs are included in this release and
provide easy installation, deadlock detection, and the ability to configure out
the networked base service for local system performance. This functionality
allows an unlimited number of file locks. Previous versions of the
UL TRIX operating system were limited by kernel data space for the
number of supported file locks.
3.4.2

NFS Server Security Changes

Each NFS request is now checked to ensure that the file system being
accessed is currently exported. If the file system is not exported, the
operation is rejected and the EST ALE errno value is returned to the client

3-12 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

process. An unexported file system message is also written to the server
console and error log.
An NFS server must run the mountd daemon. If a server does not run
the mountd daemon, clients will not be able to access server file systems.
Exported file systems are marked by the mountd daemon based on
information found in the /etc/exports file. If this file is modified, the next
time mountd is asked to process a request (for example, a showmount or
remote mount), it updates the export state on the server.
If an administrator removes an entry from the exports file, and follows
that by executing a showmount - e command, all subsequent NFS access
requests for the removed file system or directory are rejected.

3.5

Programming Notes

To conform to the POSIX standard and the common use of signal
handlers, the definition has been changed from int handler() to void
handler(). Programs compiled with int handler() generate a compiler
warning message but run correctly.
Additionally, the signal routine definition has been changed from int
( *signal())() to void ( *signal())(). If your program includes the header file
<signal.h > and uses the old syntax to define the signal routine, the
program will fail to compile. Programs should not explicitly define the
signal function; rather, they should use the definition included in the
< signal.h > header file.

3.6

Libraries

The notes in this section pertain to the C and math libraries.
3.6.1

C Library

•

The execvp function will receive a SIGILL error if passed a PATH
list that contains names greater than NAME_MAX ( 255) characters
long.

•

The atof and strtod functions have the following problems:
errno is not set to ERANGE on overflow
radix points other than periods are not recognized if the
setlocale function is called

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-13

no overflow is indicated if the exponent is larger than

19327352832
•

3.6.2

The longjmp returns zero if called with a second argument of zero
instead of returning 1. You should not call longjmp with a second
argument of zero.
Math Library

Certain math functions in /usr/lib/libm.a (for example, asin) do not properly
set errno (to EDOM) and return 0.0 when arguments are out of range, as
defined.

3. 7

Compiler Notes

The following notes pertain to the RISC C compiler:
•

The - 0 or - 02 optimization level produces incorrect code in the
following cases:
If a common subexpression using floating-point numbers appears
on both branches of an if-else statement:
#include <stdio.h>
main(argc, argv)
int
argc;
char
**argv;
{

int

start;

( a r g c >= 2 ) {
if (sscanf(argv[l],
%d
I I start >= 50.0) {
fprintf(stderr,
0uch.\n
exit(l);
i f

&start)

!= 1

);

}

else {
wh i I e ( s t a r t

>= 5 0 . 0 )

exit(2);

Note that splitting the conditionals up or otherwise simplifying
the code avoids the problem.
If a null, redundant if statement occurs at the end of a while

loop:

3-14 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

st ruct

I i st {
st ruct

Ii st

*next;

} ;
main()
register struct
for

(

I ist

*ptr;

; ptr; ptr = ptr->next)
f unc (pt r);
i f (pt r - >next == 0)

In this case, the code generated for accessing the ptr variable is
incorrect. Deleting the unnecessary if statement solves the
problem.
Incorrect code is generated in some cases when a global variable
is used on a switch statement and its value is changed
immediately afterward. Instead, the value is changed before the
switch is executed. For example:
extern
extern

choice;
global;

func()
i f (global == 9)
else global = 5;

choice

7·
'

switch (choice) {
case 3: break;
case 6: global = 2;
break;
O;
case 8: global
break;
1·
case 9: global
'
break;
choice= 7;

In this example, the choice variable is incorrectly assigned the
value 7 before the switch statement is executed. If you
encounter this problem, you should use optimization level 0 or
1.
The RISC C compiler does not optimize the following program
correctly:

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-15

main()
{
int x,y;
unsigned z;
if (x-y+l > z)
}

good();

else bad();

The '+ 1' gets lost. Use the - 00 compiler option to disable all
optimization, or cast z to int in the expression. Code that
compares signed and unsigned characters in this fashion is
problematical and should be avoided.
•

The compiler does not convert floating point numbers to unsigned
long correctly if the resulting value is too large for a signed number.

•

The C compiler does not accept a constant pointer expression in a
case statement. For example:
( i n t) ( & ( (REC *) 0) - > f i e I d)

•

Remove the redundant cast, and it is accepted.
You cannot pass the address of a floating point argument to another
function. Use a temporary variable instead.

•

The compiler does not correctly recognize variables declared as pointer
to void ( void *) . You should use pointer to char variables ( char*)
instead.

•

When the /tmp file system is full, cc reports:
ugen: internal : line 0 : build.p,
line 1743 unexpected u-code

3.8

Commands and Utilities

The notes in this section pertain to the following ULTRIX-32 Operating
System commands and utilities:

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

ar
lint
lprsetup
lpr
cp
showmount
mail
sh

3-16 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

talk

•

uucp

•
•
•

uucpsetup

newcsh
chfn
cpio
csh
de
ltf
make
pstat
rep
rd ump
script
set Id
size

yppasswd

In addition, the following sections contain a description of an expression
handling problem that occurs with some commands.
3.8.1
The ar Command
When used to extract all files from an archive, ar creates a file named
____________ ELEL_ with permissions 000 (it is a symbol table that
is automatically created ar) . If a second ar command is run with the x
key, ar displays the following message:
ar: Error: ____________ ELEL__cannot create

You can ignore this message. You can avoid receiving this message by
deleting the ____________ ELEL__ file.
3.8.2

The lint Command

The -o option on the lint command for your RISC system is similar in
meaning to the - C option on VAX-based systems. If you would prefer
them to both use - C, edit /usr/bin/lint, which is a shell script, and change
the following lines:

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-17

From:
0)

i f

[

$OPT

]

To:
[Co])

[

$0PT

]

3.8.3
The lprsetup Command
For known serial printers (with the exception of the LA50 and the LA75),
the lprsetup command sets the fs option in /etc/printcap to no parity. The
fs option for the LA50 and LA 7 5 is set to even parity. Having no parity
can cause problems, especially if the printer's dip switches are set to a
specific parity, because the terminal driver will set the line to some default
parity. This may or may not be the same as the printer's settings.
Therefore, the printer's dip switches should be set to a known parity, and
the fs option in /etc/printcap should be set explicitly to match the printer.

Yoou can do this by editing /etc/printcap or by using the lprsetup command
when creating the printing environment. For further information, see the
sg_flags field in tty( 4) in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.
3.8.4

The lpr Command

The lpr command allows control characters to be printed using the - I
option. Even when this option is specified, print jobs are piped through
the of filter or whatever filter is specified in the submitting lpr command.
Some control characters, for example "' A and "' Y, have special meanings
for the filters.
If the desired file contains these control characters, it may cause the filters
to hang. If this happens, you will have to remove the job from the queue
using the lprm command. You may also have to change the control
characters in the file. If you change the control characters in the file, use
the lpr command with the - x option. This is a transparent filter that
allows all data to be passed to the printer unchanged.
3.8.5

The cp Command

Issuing the cp command with the - r option to two directories with the
same name causes continuous recursion until it fills the file system or the
user's quota limit is exceeded.

3-18 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

3.8.6
The showmount Command
The -e option for the showmount command will fail if the /etc/exports file
on the server is larger than 2- 3K. The result is that the request will
time out and the system will display:
3

showmount -e thumper
rpc ti med out

showmount:

The workaround is to log in to the server system ( thumper in the
example) and type:
3 cat /etc/exports

Regular Expression Handling
3.8.7
Some commands have limitations in the way that they handle regular
expressions. If the length of the expression exceeds the command's
predefined boundaries, the expression may not be correctly processed by the
command. This applies to the ed, ex, and the grep type commands.
3.8.8

The mail Command

The notes in this section pertain to the mail utility.
discusses:
•

Alternate forwarding files

•
•

Daemon start order
Delimiters for aliasing

•

Invoking mail more than once

This section

3.8.8.1 Alternate Forwarding File - A potential Network File System
(NFS) problem can prevent access to the mail .forward file if the system
serving the user's home directory is not up and the system does not share
the /usr/spool/mail directory.

When mail is sent from a machine to a user on a system that contains a
mail .forward file and that file is not accessible, the mail ends up in
/usr/spool/mail on some other system. The mail appears to be lost and
there is no notification to the user that the mail was delivered to the
wrong system.
An alternate mail forwarding file solves this problem. The user can create
a forwarding file on any system that forwards the user's mail. The file is
created in the /usr/spool/mail directory and has the following syntax:

username .forward

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-19

Entries in this file are in the same format as the entries in the .forward
file in the user's home directory.
The alternate mail forwarding file in /usr/spool/mail must be owned by the
person to whom mail is directed.
If a .forward file in the user's home directory file is present and accessible

and if there is also a /usr/spool/mail/username.forward file (on the same
system), sendmail chooses the .forward file in the user's home directory
instead of the one in the /usr/spool/mail directory.
3.8.8.2 Daemon Start Order - You must make sure that the sendmail
daemon start specification in the /etc/re. local file comes after the start of
the Yellow Pages ( YP) daemons. If the send mail daemon is specified
before the YP daemons, users defined in the YP maps for passwords and
aliases will not be visible to sendmail and mail will get returned with the
following error message:
unknown user

This problem only occurs when the order of the start specifications in the
re.local file is incorrect. If the ypsetup script is used to implement the
YP database, the YP start specifications are automatically placed in the
proper place in the file.
3.8.8.3 Delimiters for Aliasing - Alias names in the .mailrc file must be
separated by commas or spaces, but not both. If you mix commas and
spaces for delimiters between alias names, the alias fails. It generates bad
address constructs in the To: fields.
3.8.8.4 Invoking ma ii More Than Once - If you invoke /usr/ucb/mail
more than once on your current mailbox ( /usr/spool/mail/ username), you
may lose mail. The mail program is similar to the vi editor in that when
you invoke /usr/ucb/mail, you cause an edit to your mailbox as you delete
mail. Therefore, if you invoke mail twice on your current mailbox, the
results are unpredictable.
3.8.9

The sh Command

•

The Version 7 Bourne Shell, /bin/sh, is not 8-bit clean.

•

If the Bourne shell, /bin/sh, is run from another program (by the

system or exec system call) whose maximum file descriptor in use is
number 10, the prompt string will not be printed. This can happen
if a program has eight files open (in addition to the customary std in,
stdout, and stderr) at the time sh is called.

3-20 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

The problem does not occur with the System V Bourne shell, sh5, or
with the C shell, csh. It also does not happen if file descriptor 11
is in use.
The newcsh Command
3.8.10
The newcsh command has been enhanced with a command line edit
feature.
The /usr/new/csh command is a modified version of the VAX version of
newcsh, which included command completion and filename recognition. The
enhanced newcsh contains all of the functionality of the VAX version of
/usr/new/csh, plus the new command line edit feature.

For further information, see newcsh(l) in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.
3.8.11

The chfn Command

When you run chfn as root, you must supply a user name that is listed in
the /etc/passwd file or the Yellow Pages ( YP) . If the user name supplied
to chfn is unknown, chfn dumps core with a segmentation fault.
3.8.12

The cpio Command

The cpio command should not be used to save and restore symbolic links
or directories which contain symbolic links. Corruption of the "linked to"
file name can occur if it is used in this manner.
3.8.13

The csh Command

The following alias causes csh( 1) to dump core:
alias xxx
anything'

'foreach x

(

1 )\

Any use of the alias xxx causes csh to dump core.
To avoid this problem do not use a backslash ( ") when aliasing a foreach
or while loop. A second way to avoid this problem is to use a C shell
script instead of the alias.
3.8.14

The de Command

The de command behaves unpredictably under the following conditions:
•
With division OR remainder
•

The dividend is negative

•

The scale is zero

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-21

The result depends on whether the number of digits after the decimal is
even or odd as the following script shows:
csh > de
_8.88
(#of digits

is even,

result

-8.88/1

-9)

-8.888/1

-8)

-8.8888/1

l/p
-9
_8.888

l/p
-8
_8.8888
l/p
-8
_8.88
9.112

(#of digits

is odd,

result

is even,

result

-8.8831

-9 again)

1%p

You can prevent this problem by avoiding the specific conditions under
which it occurs or by setting the scale value equal to the number of digits
you want after the decimal place.

3.8.15

The ltf Command

If you try to extract files from a tape created with the ltf command, the
utility generates an error message about header errors on the tape.

The workaround is to name individual files on the extraction list, one at a
time. Individual files are extracted despite the error message.
These errors are not encountered when using ltf to extract from disk files.
The make Command
3.8.16
•
If a makefile contains a dependency on a nonexistant file instead of
always executing the rule, the current time is used for comparison.
This can cause troubles when using make across an NFS environment
if the time on the file server is later than the time on the client.

•

If the variable $ * is used in an explicit makefile rule (that is, not a
rule like .c.o), it will not have a predictable value. Note that the
documentation for make states that $* is only valid in implicit rules.

•

The documentation for s5make suggests installing it as /bin/make to
use the System V behavior. This will have no effect because
/bin/make is now a symbolic link to s5make. Most System V make
behavior is now incorporated into /bin/make; the only major difference
is that make always uses /bin/sh, and s5make uses the SHELL
environment variable, if present.

•

The make command treats $$ as the end of a file name in a
dependency list, not as a single $.

3-22 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

3.8.17

The pstat Command

When the - t option is specified, the pstat command does not give the
correct information about the local serial lines or the console.
3.8.18

The rdump Command

If you are using the rdump utility to dump from a machine running an

earlier version of ULTRIX-32 Operating System, you must specify the -o
option.
The following example illustrates the correct command line syntax for
dumping from a pre-version 3.0 machine to one running version 3.0:
rdump Ouof V3.0_machine:/dev/rmt0h /local_pre-V3.0_fi lesystem

3.8.19

The script Command

When exiting the script command with a CTRL/D, the command hangs and
will not release the terminal until all children exit.
To avoid hanging the process initiated by the script command wait until all
children have exited or use the kill command to terminate all children
before exiting.
3.8.20

The setld Command

The following notes pertain to the setld command.
3.8.20.1 Removing Subsets - Your ULTRIX-32 operating system comes
with several thousand files, which are organized into discrete functional
units, called subsets. If you need to remove any of the files that were
placed on your system when you installed it, use the setld utility to
remove them. Failure to use the setld command may degrade the usability
of the software.
The setld utility tracks the files installed on your system by using data
that it stores in /usr/etc/subsets. Do not remove any of the files in that
directory, because you will lose the ability to install and delete system and
layered product software.
3.8.20.2 Installing Subsets from Two Installation Devices - The results
of attempting to use the setld command to install software subsets from
two installation devices simultaneously are undefined. Do not attempt to
run two instances of setld at the same time to install software subsets.
Also do not attempt to use dms, ris, or setld at the same time.

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-23

3.8.20.3 lnsta lling Subsets - The - a option of setld enables you to
quickly re-install subsets that had been previously installed with the - I
option.

Attempting to re-install a currently installed subset with -I will fail because
the currently installed subsets are not offered on the - I menu.
Attempting to use - a to install subsets from the installation media without
having first used - I on the media will also fail, because setld - I performs
some necessary initializations for recognizing the subsets on the product
tape. Note that the basic, advanced, and network installations perform
these initializations for all media read during the installation.
You can determine whether a subset has been initialized in this way by
checking to see if the subset is in the output from the setld - i command.
Both the - a and - I options will install subsets that had been deleted with
the - d option.
3.8.21

The size Command

The size command can generate the following error messages:
ldopen: cannot read magic number fikname
size: cannot open fikname
ldinitheaders: magic number incorrect (OxO)
size: cannot open fikname

These errors, while more cryptic, essentially have the meaning as the
following VAX-based size message:
size: fikname not an object f i I e

3.8.22

The talk Command

The following notes pertain to the talk program.
3.8.22.1 The talk Command Is Not 8-bit Clean - The talk command is
not 8-bit clean. Typing in DEC Multinational Characters ( DECMCS) causes
the characters to echo as a sequence of a caret ( " ) followed by the
character represented with its high bit cleared.

This limitation makes talk unusable if you want to communicate using a
language that has DECMCS characters in its alphabet.

3-24 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

3.8.22.2 Changes in the talk Program - To use the talk program with
machines on your network that may be running earlier versions of
ULTRIX-32 Operating System, you must initiate a session with the
command otalk ( /usr/ucb/otalk) instead of the command talk.

You must also respond to a request from a machine running an older
version of the talk program with the otalk command.
The following example demonstrates how to use the otalk command. In
this case, userl, whose system ( systeml) is running an earlier version of
the operating system initiates a session with user2, whose system
( system2) is running the current version. U serl types the following:
systeml> talk user2@system2

The following message appears on the screen of user2:
Message from Talk_Daemon@system2 at 12:37 ...
talk: connection requested by userl@systeml.
ta I k : respond w i t h : o ta I k use r l@s y st em 1

To establish the connection user2 follows the instructions from the
Talk_Daemon and types the following at the system prompt:
system2> otalk userl@systeml

3.8.23

The uucp Command

The - nrec option of the uucp command is undocumented. This option
does the same thing as the - m option, except that it does not send mail
to the requester (sender) but rather to the recipient (rec) of the file. For
further information, see uucp( 1) in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.
3.8.24

The uucpsetup Command

The uucpsetup command does not modify the /etc/remote file to include
the tty device names.
3.8.25

The vi Command

•

If you set the environment variable EXINIT to open, vi causes a bus
error core dump. EXINIT allows you to customize the mode of the
editor at startup time. Do not initialize vi with EXINIT open.

•

For the vi family of editors (vi, ex, e, and edit), do not set the
wrapmargin to a positive value and then wrapscan. Doing so can
cause data corruption in the edited buffer when performing a yank
and put operation.

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-25

3.8.26

The yppasswd Command

The yppasswd command changes the protections of your password Yellow
Pages related maps to 666 ( -rw-rw-rw-) , which allows all users read and
write privileges.
To protect your YP maps from malicious users, change the modes of your
/etclyp/domain-name directory to 700 ( drwx------).

3.9

System Facilities

The notes in this section contain information on the kernel, 1/0, and
related system tools.
3.9.1

Errors in the /etc/passwd File

Errors in the /etc/passwd file may not be adequately checked by programs
that read the file.
Any changes that you make to /etc/passwd must conform to the file
format described in the reference pages for passwd( 5) and passwd( 5yp).
In particular, if the user id ( UID) or the group id ( GID) is omitted or
incorrectly inserted, some programs (those which do not use the
getpwent( 3) family of functions) may assume inappropriate defaults for a
UID or a GID. This may introduce a security hole on some systems,
especially those that allow a null UID to default to a value of 0.
The following are particularly important:
•

Each entry in /etc/passwd must contain at least the following fields:
name, password, numerical user id ( UID) and numerical group id
( GID). Each field must be separated by a colon. Any line in
/etc/passwd without at least this much information is ignored.
For example, a system manager must minimally enter the following:
j c j : : 508: 10:

An encrypted password can be added with the passwd command. Be
sure that the UID and the GID fields are defined. A more complete
(and so more acceptable) /etc/passwd entry is as follows:
jcj: :508:10:Jack C.

Johnson:/usr/staff/jcj/:/bin/csh

The only exception to this rule is for lines that begin with plus or
minus signs ( + or - ) for yellow pages access. These lines may
contain a single name, preceded by + or - and followed by a colon.
For example:
+j cj :

3-26 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

•
•

•

3.9.2

The user name is restricted to a maximum of 8 characters.
The encrypted password is seldom directly entered with a text editor.
Instead you should use the passwd command to add an encrypted
passwd. You can omit an encrypted password in /etc/passwd, leaving
a zero-length password field. An empty password field allows a user
to login without supplying a password.
The user ID field ( UID) and the group ID field ( GID) must contain
only the digits 0-9. The UID must have a value less than 32000. If
you omit either the UID or GID fields, the system defaults to an
inappropriate value. See UID_MAX in /usr/include/limits.h for a
definition of the maximum uid value.
The group ID field ( GID), like the UID, must consist only of the 10
digits, 0-9, and its value must be less than 32000.
The ptrace System Call

Programs using ptrace to write into the instruction space of a traced
program, prevent that image file from being executed until the traced
program has terminated. For further information, see ptrace( 2) and
dbx( 1) in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.
3.9.3

The sendmail Program

The $x macro, which represents the full personal name of sender, is not
set by the sendmail program when the sender is not local. Users who
receive mail through the DECnet-Internet Gateway do not see the personal
name of the person who sent the message.
This behavior is due to the way mail headers are constructed. The
sendmail program uses information in the /etc/passwd file to get personal
names; the program has no access to remote password files.
3.9.4

Writing into a Remote a.out File

If a remote a.out image file is written to a server while one or more

clients are using that image file, further references on that file by the
currently executing client processes will cause those processes to be killed.
Under these conditions, the system responds with the message:
pid <number> ki I led due to text modification

The <number> argument is the pid number of the process that was killed.

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-27

If another process is started up on a given client while processes on that
client are being killed, the new process will fail and the system responds
by displaying the message:
remote text modified and not yet cleaned up

In this case, retry the process.

3.10

Networking and Communications

This section contains information on networks and networking protocols.
3.10.1

DLl/802 Passes Up Packets That Should Be Dropped

When a user opens a DLI/802 socket and enables an individual and group
SAP, the socket can receive "Unnumbered Information" messages sent to
that SAP with the poll bit set to 1. To detect this event, the user must
use the recvfrom call and process the control field passed in the
address/header structure. This is done by testing bit 4 (assuming the low
order bit is numbered 0) of the U_fmt member of the osi_802hdr
structure. Unnumbered Information" packets should only have the poll bit
set to 0. If the bit is set to 1, the packet should be ignored.
3.10.2

DU/Ethernet Drivers

The "Unrecognized Frame Destination" counter is maintained by the
Ethernet drivers. It is incremented when a driver receives a packet for
which there is no end user. When the Data Link Interface ( DLI) is built
into the system, the Ethernet drivers automatically pass to it all unwanted
inbound packets instead of incrementing this counter. If DLI cannot find a
user for which the packet is destined, then the packet is dropped.
However, there is currently no mechanism in place for DLI to inform the
driver that the "Unrecognized Frame Destination" counter should be
incremented.
There is no workaround for this condition, but it is unlikely to affect
anyone but users trying to troubleshoot a network problem.
3.10.3

Incorrect UUCP Checksum Calculation with F Protocol

When transmitting a file to a non-UL TRIX operating system using f
protocol, the uucp daemon does not calculate the checksum correctly if the
file contains binary or 8-bit data.

3-28 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

Performance Improvement for VP and BIND
3.10.4
To improve on performance when using Yellow Pages ( YP) and Berkeley
Internet Name Domain (BIND) in a large network, remove all entries from
the /etc/hosts file except for localhost and your host, and use YP and
BIND to resolve all others. In the /etc/svcorder file, place "local" first.
This is an improvement, because localhost and the local host name are
requested frequently.
Manual Update of BIND server's Serial Number
3.10.5
Be sure to increment the serial number (integers only) in a BIND primary
server's SOA (Start of Authority) record when the data files are manually
updated. SOA records usually exist in the following files:
/etc/namedb/named.hosts
/etc/namedb/named. rev

Other servers ( secondary, root, and so on) check this number to decide if
a zone refresh is necessary to update its information. For example, if a
secondary server's serial number is less than or equal to the primary
server's serial number, then a zone refresh is requested. If this number is
not updated on the primary server, other BIND servers hold old BIND
data until that data expires.
To increase the frequency of this serial number check, reduce the refresh
time on the other servers or reduce the expire time on the primary server.
Use of Full Host Names When Running BIND
3.10.6
The following files must use the host name as defined by /bin/hostname on
the client:
/etc/exports
/etc/hosts. I pd
/.rhosts
-1.rhosts

If the machine is running Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND), the
/bin/hostname should be the local host name plus the BIND domain name
separated by periods, for example:
/bin/hostname student.harvard.edu

In this example, student is the local host name in the BIND domain
harvard.edu. This command is in the /etc/re.local file. For further
information, see the Guide to BIND Service.

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-29

NFS Server Security Changes
3.10.7
Each NFS request is now checked to ensure that the file system being
accessed is currently exported. If the file system is not exported, the
operation is rejected, and the ESTALE errno value is returned to the
client process. An unexported filesystem message is also written to the
server console and error log.
An NFS server must run the mountd daemon. If a server does not run
the mountd daemon, clients will not be able to access server file systems.
Exported file systems are marked by the mountd daemon based on
information found in the /etc/exports file. If this file is modified, the next
time mountd is asked to process a request (for example, a showmount or
remote mount) , it updates the export state on the server.
If an administrator removes an entry from the exports file and follows that
by executing a showmount - e command, all subsequent NFS access
requests for the removed file system or directory are rejected.

NFS server daemons must be started in the correct order, which is
portmap, mountd, and nfsd. The nfsd daemon now exits if started before
either the portmap or mountd daemons. The nfssetup setup script starts
these daemons in the correct order.
3.10.8
Blank Lines in Yellow Pages Map Files
Blank lines in the Yellow Pages map source data files cause errors.
not include blank lines in these files.

3.11

Standards and External Specifications

The following notes include information on industry standards.
POSIX Interface Support
3.11.1
In ULTRIX-32 Operating System supports the POSIX interface, which can
be selected in either of the following ways:
•
Use the - YPOSIX option with the cc command.
•
Set the PROG_ENV environment variable to POSIX.

See the ENVIRONMENT section of system and library calls for specific
POSIX behavior. For further information, see the POSIX Conformance
Document.

3-30 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

System Calls in the POSIX Environment
3.11.2
When your program is compiled in the POSIX environment, the following
system calls behave as described below:
System Call

Behavior in POSIX Environment

chown(2)

The owner argument is of the type uid_t ~ and the
group argument is of the type gid_t.

getuid(2)

The getuid and geteuid functions return values of
the type uid_t. The getgid and getegid functions
return values of the type g id_t.

kill(2)

The pid argument is of the type pid_t.

umask(2)

The numask argument is of the type mode_t and
the umask function returns a value of the type
mode_t.

setuid(3)

The setuid function returns a value of the type uid_t
and the setg id function returns a value of the type
gid_t.
In the POSIX or SYSTEM V mode, the following
semantics apply when using setuid or setgid
functions:
If the process is the superuser, then the real,
effective, and saved set ( as described in execve(2)
user/group IDs are set to uid.
If the process is not the superuser, but uid is equal
to the real or the saved set user/group ID, then
the effective user/group ID is set to uid. The real
and saved set user/group IDs remain unchanged.

3.12

Miscellaneous Known Problems

The following are the miscellaneous know base system problems:
•

Swap space
For information about increasing swap space, see Section 4.1.

=f The _t indicates a primitive system data type that is defined in /usr/include/sys/types.h.

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-31

•

dbx
The "list main" command, where main is a function name, gets a
bad line number.
dbx gets stuck with stopped tty output when it is put in the
background ( bg ) and then put in the foreground ( fg ) ,
df

The df command when run with only local disks ( or with file systems
that have less than 10 characters in their name) prints just
"Filesyste".
•

The send command does not recognize -nowait with "send: -nowait"
in .mh_profile.
The send command with the - ali option specified and a nonexistent
alias file is encountered exits rather than ignores the nonexistent
alias file.
•

•

nroff
The nroff command with the - h tab option produces different output
than on VAX-based systems.
SCSI tape
The SCSI tape driver does not handle an end-of-tape ( EOT) condition
correctly. Thus, multivolume tar, cpio, and dd tapes cannot be
created. Note that the dump, restore, and backup utilities do create
multivolume tapes.
mt utility
Because the SCSI tape driver does not return the status that the mt
utility is expecting, EOT, Online, and Offline conditions are not
reported correctly.

Hang up on last close
In a POSIX environment or SVID environment, the HUPCL (hang
up on last close) bit in the c_cflag field does not work correctly.
This can be worked around by using the TIOCHPCL ioctl call from
the Berkeley environment. For further information, see intro( 2) in
the ULTRIX Reference Pages.

3-32 ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes

•

Modems
Limited modem support is provided on /dev/ttyOO. This support
consists of only DTR (data terminal ready) and DSR (data set
ready). Therefore, the port does not conform to DEC-STANDARD52, because this CD (carrier detect) and CTS (clear to send) are
also needed for conformance.
Because the port can only sense DSR, this is used to realize that a
connection is trying to be established. Therefore, a modem connected
to this port must be set such that the DSR lead follows carrier.
The modem must also be set so that it does not use CTS/RTS flow
control, because these leads are not present. See the modem's
manual for specifics on setting these attributes.
Baud rates on serial ports
The two serial ports do not support baud rates of 19,200 bits per
second or 38,400 bits per second. These values can be set in the
terminal structure using an ioctl, but their corresponding baud rate
value will be undetermined.
Crash dump problems
Do not use the mouse while the system is crash dumping; this will
cause the system to panic again and lose the dump.
TZK50 error
The TZK50 can lose filemark position information when spacing over
multiple large files. This seems to be most noticable when using the
setld command to load subsets in a random order. To work around
this problem, do not specify the - a option with the setld command.
Rather, use the - I option with the set Id command to read the files
in the order in which they occur on the tape and, thus, minimize the
amount of tape movement.

ULTRIX-32 Operating System Notes 3-33

ULTRIX Documentation Notes 4

The notes in this chapter pertain to the UL TRIX documentation that was
shipped as part of your ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0
(RISC) or ULTRIX-32, Version 3.0 (RISC) system. This chapter
discusses:
•
Revised and new documents
•
•

4.1

Reference pages
Undocumented library functions

Revised and New Documents

The ULTRIX documentation has been revised to accommodate the changes
required by the new RISC architecture. Therefore, any document that
contains information that is specific to your RISC-based system has the
phrase "for RISC Processors" as part of its title. Those documents that
do not have this phrase in their title contain information that is relevant
to both RISC-based and VAX-based systems. The documents that are
specific to your RISC-based system are:

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Rekase Notes for RISC Processors
Documentation Overview for RISC Processors
Technical Summary for RISC Processors
Guide to Languages and Programming for RISC Processors
Advanced Instal/,ation Guide for RISC Processors
Introduction to System and Network Management for RISC
Processors
Guide to System Environment Setup for RISC Processors
Guide to System Configuration Fil£ Maintenance for RISC Processors
Guide to System Shutdown and Startup for RISC Processors
Guide to System Backup and Restore for RISC Processors
Guide to System Disk Maintenance for RISC Processors
Guide to System Crash Recovery for RISC Processors

•
Guide to the Error Logger System for RISC Processors
•
Guide to Networking for RISC Processors
•
Guide to Ethernet Communication Servers for RISC Processors
The following documents have been revised to make applicable to both the
RISC and VAX architectures:
•
Guide to Remote Installation Service for RISC and VAX Processors
•
Guide to Diskl.ess Management Services for RISC and VAX
Processors
•
Guide to Server Setup for RISC and VAX Processors
In addition, three new ULTRIX documents have been created for your
ULTRIX Worksystem Software, Version 2.0 (RISC) or ULTRIX-32,
Version 3.0 (RISC) system:
•
Documentation Overview for RISC Processors
•
Introduction to the ULTRIX Worksystem Software Environment
•
Guide to Languages and Programming for RISC Processors

4.2

Reference Pages

The ULTRIX Reference Pages documents now include pages for the
graphics windowing software as well as RISC-specific and VAX-specific
versions of the operating system commands, system calls, library functions,
and so on. Your online reference pages, however, include pages for the
graphics windowing software ( lX) but have been custom-fit for your RISCbased system. That is, no VAX-specific pages have been included with your
online reference pages.
In addition, some reference pages had changes made to them after their
respective manuals went to print. Therefore, for the following reference
pages, you should refer to the online versions for the most up-to-date
information:
access( 2)
•

•
•
•
•

chmod(2)
connect( 2)
mkdir(2)
mknod(2)

•

mount( 2)

•
•
•

swapon(2)
unlink( 2)
utime( 2)

4-2 ULTRIX Documentation Notes

4.3

Undocumented Library Functions

The following C library functions, which can be used to convert floating
values between VAX and IEEE formats, are not documented in the
ULTRIX Reference Pages.
i nt

f to i (value)
f I oat *value;

The ftoi function converts the specified VAX ffloat number to IEEE singleprecision format. It returns zero if successful and nonzero without
performing the conversion if not successful (for example, underflow).
i nt

i to f (value)
f Io at *value;

The itof function converts the specified IEEE single-precision number to
VAX ffloat format. It returns zero if successful and nonzero without
performing the conversion if not successful (for example, overflow) .
i nt

d to i (value)
do u b I e * value ;

The dtoi function converts the specified VAX dfloat number to IEEE
double-precision format. It returns zero if successful and nonzero without
performing the conversion if not successful (for example, underflow) .
i nt

i t o d ( value)
do u b I e * value ;

The itod function converts the specified IEEE double-precision number to
VAX dfloat format. It returns zero if successful and nonzero without
performing the conversion if not successful (for example, underflow or
overflow).
i nt

gt o i ( value)
do u b I e * value ;

The gtoi function converts the specified VAX gfloat number to IEEE
double-precision format. It returns zero if successful and nonzero without
performing the conversion if not successful (for example, underflow) .
i nt

i tog (value)
doub I e *value;

The itog function converts the specified IEEE double-precision number to
VAX gfloat format. It returns zero if successful and nonzero without
performing the conversion if not successful (for example, underflow).

ULTRIX Documentation Notes 4-3

ULTRIX
Release Notes for RISC Processors
AA-NE 12A-TE

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