home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- I have not made any effort to port dls/describe to any other version
- of Unix (this is because I don't have access to any other versions of Unix).
- It runs under DYNIX version 3.0.12, which is based on 4.2 bsd, so it should
- be fairly portable.
-
- I will list the things that might need consideration when porting:
-
- 1. DBM. The description records are stored using dbm or ndbm.
- If you want to use ndbm or an ndbm-compatible library, define
- NDBM when compiling.
-
- 2. Directory reading routines. I have used the opendir/readdir
- calls that come with DYNIX. There is a non-commercial version
- of this for most versions of Unix nowdays. I would note that
- the DYNIX version uses a "struct direct". Some use a
- "struct dirent".
-
- 3. Scanf. I use scanf to read strings containing white-space.
- There may be some simpler versions out there that cannot do this
- (I'm really not sure, though).
-
- 4. Uid/gid types. Newer versions of Unix define uid_t and gid_t,
- and use them in all situations. DYNIX makes half an effort, so
- things aren't too clean on this one.
-
- 5. Include files. I wrote up my own version of string.h ages ago
- when I started adding some of the more recent str* routines, so I
- always use that. It wasn't in DYNIX when we got it, though
- (strings.h was instead). There may be other changes necessary.
-
- 6. Strchr. The worlds most common porting consideration.
-
- 7. strpbrk. Wasn't in DYNIX. I have provided source for others who
- don't already have it.
-
- 8. I have made a fair bit of use of void in the source. If your
- compiler can't handle void (I imagine there are few such compilers
- left in the world), you will have to make adjustments for this.
-
- Of course, I am interested in seeing the results of any porting efforts,
- so that I can incorporate them in later releases. Depending on the level
- of my spare time, I would even be prepared to assist you in porting this
- to your particular brand of Unix. I have a desire to see this propagate
- as far as possible around the world of Unix anonymous FTP sites.
-