Unix Archive

"This is extraordinary news for all nerds, computer scientists and the Open Source community: the source code of the MULTICS operating system (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service), the father of UNIX and all modern OSes, has finally been opened . Multics was an extremely influential early time-sharing operating system started in 1964 and introduced a large number of new concepts, including dynamic linking and a hierarchical file system. It was extremely powerful, and UNIX can in fact be considered to be a 'simplified' successor to MULTICS (the name 'Unix' is itself a hack on 'Multics'). The last running Multics installation was shut down on October 31, 2000."

Diagnose and service memory overlays and address errors more efficiently with POWER6 processors and AIX Version 6.1. In the AIX operating system, software components share the kernel address, creating a serviceability issue for the AIX kernel and kernel extensions.

Prior to the general availability of AIX 6, IBM intends to make a pre-release version of AIX 6 available in an open beta. "AIX is an open, standards-based UNIX operating system that provides the enterprise information technology infrastructure for thousands of clients around the world. IBM intends to take the next step in the evolution of the AIX operating system with the release of the AIX V6.1 OS."

Would you be able to survive one full day without using the X server? Linux offers us a wide assortment of CLI based tools which use curses and/or framebuffer for functional user interfaces. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able look up stuff online, read your email, look at pictures, watch movies and listen to music as you are trying to configure X.

GNU/Fiwix is a 32-bit x86 operating system kernel based on the Unix architecture and fully focused on being Linux compatible. It is designed exclusively for educational purposes, so the kernel code is kept as simple as possible for the benefit of students. In the latest version, the virtual memory manager code has been improved to support SVGAlib-based applications and to add the ability to mmap() physical addresses. The way to map physical addresses in the /dev/mem driver has been improved. The mmap() and readpage() methods have been added to the VFS structure. Among other improvements in the VFS layer, the code to build with gcc 4.x has been fixed.

"On UNIX systems, each system and end-user task is contained within a process. The system creates new processes all the time and processes die when a task finishes or something unexpected happens. Here, learn how to control processes and use a number of commands to peer into your system."

"The UNIX operating system provides a rich set of features that allows processes to communicate with each other. Known as Inter-Process Communication, you can use this communication method to reconfigure an application at run time or to share data between different processes that are running in parallel. This article teaches you how to identify the methods that applications can use to communicate with each other, select the most appropriate method for your application, and begin your implementation."

Get an overview of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol-related enhancements in the AIX 5L operating system V5.3 TL5 update. This lets clients configure and manage multiple systems with a single set of user identity configuration information, and it simplifies system administration.

Memory leaks can be tough and costly problems to solve, so it makes sense to use good tools to clearly point out and understand where the leaks are coming from. This article outlines an approach you can use while tackling memory leaks, and it discusses how to take advantage of the MALLOCDEBUG tool that is supplied with AIX.

Set up a Kerberized environment to work with Solaris 10 and learn how to configure a Key Distribution Center on AIX Version 5.3. You'll also run through a series of steps for configuring a Kerberos client on Solaris 10 to authenticate users for Telnet, remote shell, and Secure Shell using AIX 5.3 as your KDC.

UNIX provides robust tools and infrastructure so that you can both protect and share information. This article looks at user privileges and, in particular, examines how to manipulate file permissions to restrict or share your directories and files with others. Understanding permissions is crucial if you want to speak UNIX fluently. Learn how to manipulate file permissions to protect your files, or share them with others.

"To make Linux applications usable worldwide, with no inequity between Western dialects and the rest of the world's many languages, you must be able to deliver localized versions that input, store, retrieve, and render any language, no matter how complex. The multilingualization library, or m17n, provides a single internationalization solution for all languages on UNIX-like platforms."

"Want to run best of breed apps under both Windows and Unix? Eric Hall tells you about an option for doing this: Microsoft's Posix subsystem. It lets Unix apps think they are using regular Unix, but they are actually using Windows instead."

UNIX provides hundreds, if not thousands, of commands with which you can manipulate a large variety of resources available in the kernel and user space. Martin Streicher, Editor-in-Chief, Linux Magazine, looks at three essential UNIX utilities that deliver the entire Internet to your command line.