Porting Unix Software: From Download to Debug (Nutshell Handbooks) [Paperback]

Greg Lehey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 1995 | Series: Nutshell Handbooks

If you work on a UNIX system, a good deal of your most useful software comes from other people -- your vendor is not the source. This means, all too often, that the software you want was written for a slightly different system and that it has to be ported. Despite the best efforts of standards committees and the admirable people who write the software (often giving it away for free), something is likely to go wrong when you try to compile their source code. But help is now here!

Problems can crop up at any stage in porting. Special configuration is often required before you compile. The source code could call functions that you've never heard of. Some programs make assumptions about the hardware they're running on or the terminals they interact with. And you may even have trouble with the documentation, if it's in a format you're not used to.

This book deals with the whole life cycle of porting, from setting up a source tree on your system to correcting platform differences and even testing the executable after it's built. The book exhaustively discusses the differences between versions of UNIX and the areas where porters tend to have problems.

The assumption made in this book is that you just want to get a package working on your system; you don't want to become an expert in the details of your hardware or operating system (much less an expert in the system used by the person who wrote the package!). Many problems can be solved without a knowledge of C or UNIX, while the ones that force you to deal directly with source code are explained as simply and concretely as possible.

Topics covered in this book include:

• Unpacking the software
• Common configuration tasks
• Incompatibilities in makefiles and compilers
• Building documentation
• Variations in system calls, file systems, terminal handling, and other kernel features
• Commonly used libraries
• Compiler and assembler files

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

If you work on a UNIX system, a good deal of your most useful software comes from other people -- your vendor is not the source. This means, all too often, that the software you want was written for a slightly different system and that it has to be ported. Despite the best efforts of standards committees and the admirable people who write the software (often giving it away for free), something is likely to go wrong when you try to compile their source code. But help is now here! Problems can crop up at any stage in porting. Special configuration is often required before you compile. The source code could call functions that you've never heard of. Some programs make assumptions about the hardware they're running on or the terminals they interact with. And you may even have trouble with the documentation, if it's in a format you're not used to. This book deals with the whole life cycle of porting, from setting up a source tree on your system to correcting platform differences and even testing the executable after it's built. The book exhaustively discusses the differences between versions of UNIX and the areas where porters tend to have problems. The assumption made in this book is that you just want to get a package working on your system; you don't want to become an expert in the details of your hardware or operating system (much less an expert in the system used by the person who wrote the package!). Many problems can be solved without a knowledge of C or UNIX, while the ones that force you to deal directly with source code are explained as simply and concretely as possible. Topics covered in this book include: Unpacking the software Common configuration tasks Incompatibilities in makefiles and compilers Building documentation Variations in system calls, file systems, terminal handling, and other kernel features Commonly used libraries Compiler and assembler files

From the Back Cover

Porting UNIX Software deals with the whole life cycle of porting, from setting up a source tree on your system to correcting platform differences and even testing the executable after it's built. The book exhaustively discusses the differences between versions of UNIX and the areas where porters tend to have problems. The assumption made in this book is that you just want to get a package working on your system; you don't want to become an expert in the details of your hardware or operating system (much less an expert in the system used by the person who wrote the package). Many problems can be solved without a knowledge of C or UNIX, while the ones that force you to deal directly with source code are explained as simply and concretely as possible.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 534 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st ed edition (April 8, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565921267
• ISBN-13: 978-1565921269
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,434,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outdated, but still contains useful information, July 6, 2000

By 

Melissa D. Binde - See all my reviews

This review is from: Porting Unix Software: From Download to Debug (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

Unfortunately a large amount of the material in this book has become outdated -- autoconf ("./configure") and friends have successfully made hand-configuring most packages a thing of the past. Many of the constraints and issues in the book are not problems on modern systems -- gcc is still a bear, but it's a rare system that doesn't have the space to keep around all stages of the bootstrap.

If you have any sysadmin background, a lot of the book will be repetition; but if you are new to sysadmining (or porting), or are willing to skip over the bits you already know, it's still worth reading or skimming.

In addition there are still useful tidbits despite these issues. The discussion of terminal information, while a bit esoteric for some readers, is detailed. Although the OS's that the author uses for examples are older, the general principles still apply (especially BSD vs. SysV). The standards information is still useful, and the general "how to persuade a package to compile on a different OS" is excellent.

It also could be useful for the programmer -- being generally familiar with this book may help you write code that will be easier to port, and will definitely help you if you're porting your own code (look at the section on emulating unavailable behaviors.)

Don't expect to get a full 500 pages of useful information -- but the remaining pages are still worth the read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid guide and very well written, August 17, 2001

By 

"targeted" (Yellowknife, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Porting Unix Software: From Download to Debug (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

This book is two books in one actually. First part of the book covers magnitude of problems you may encounter when trying to make and run new software on Unix-based machine. It describes the whole process from unpacking (can you believe one might have troubles unpacking stuff ?) and configuring to compiling and run-time debugging. Nothing of a rocket science, a book of advises instead. Lots of useful info. Second part is more of a reference. It lists differences between different flavours of Unix. Nothing deep in kernel, but rather library functions and #defines that behave differently and such. Warnings on when and where you can hit a brick wall. Pretty useful too. Regards must be given to Mr. Lehey for the language, the book is very easy to read.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No more nightmares!, April 24, 2000

By 

Rayappa Mayakunthala - See all my reviews

This review is from: Porting Unix Software: From Download to Debug (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

I am a SysAdmin at an Organization with more than 150 Unix machines. I compile and install packages day in and day out. It was a really nightmare dealing with the packages from downloading to get it working. There was not a day I did not think why was not there a book that teaches more than README and the installation notes that come with the source tree, until I found this book.

Now this book just sits on my desk! It has become a handy reference for me. This book teaches you right from unpacking the source tree to the installation. This book also deals with the variations in systems calls, file systems, terminal handling, and other kernel features of various Unix Flavors.

If your job requires you to deal with the Unix software packages, this book is a must to have on your desk.