Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1a 12/4/83; site rlgvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!rlgvax!guy From: guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: net.followup,net.micro Subject: Re: AT&T and the 3B*2 Message-ID: <2011@rlgvax.UUCP> Date: Sat, 9-Jun-84 20:39:02 EDT Article-I.D.: rlgvax.2011 Posted: Sat Jun 9 20:39:02 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 10-Jun-84 07:04:11 EDT References: <692@cp1.UUCP> <483@spuxll.UUCP> <143@pertec.UUCP> <2002@rlgvax.UUCP> <7433@umcp-cs.UUCP> Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA Lines: 43 > From the UNIXtm System Administrator (sic) Guide [for the] 3B5 Processor, > page A-7: > DUP TABLE OVERFLOW (CONTINUE) > An internal table in fsck containing duplicate block numbers has no > more room. Reompile fsck with a larger value of DUPTBLSIZE. > I hope the C compiler isn't an ``option''... >> Customer: I'm having this problem with the software. (description) > What should I do? > AT&T: Oh, that! Just recompile the system with option blat. AT&T is slowly learning that "recompile program xxx with option blat" isn't a very useful instruction in administrator's manuals; after all, all the sites that run UNIX, at least the ones we care about, have UNIX source, right? :-) A less severe, but probably more annoying, version was the USG UNIX accounting package. It sliced up CPU and connect time into "prime time" and "non-prime time"; "prime time" was 9am-5pm, Monday through Friday, except holidays. Unfortunately, business hours and the holiday list were *compiled into the accounting programs*, and when it came near the end of the year the accounting software would instruct you to "RECOMPILE pnpsplit WITH NEW HOLIDAYS". Well, if you didn't have source, and it wasn't 1980, or your holiday schedule didn't coincide with the Bell Labs 1980 schedule, guess what creek you were up? This was fixed in System V - the holiday schedule comes from a file (although in a masterful stroke of human engineering you specify the days by their day-of-year value. Of *course* everybody has a calendar with the day-of-year marked on each day, right?). I think a good discipline for producing software which doesn't use "cc" as an essential customizing tool is to distribute the software to a machine with no compilers, no libraries, no include files, no *nothing* - and let it run for a while. Any problems that can't be fixed, or any necessary customization that can't be done, becaus the compilers are missing is reported as a bug and has to be fixed before the software is released. Slows down the release, possibly quite a bit, but at least you don't get burned when you send out binary copies... Guy Harris {seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy