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#: 50224 S0/Roundtable/Uploads
27-Dec-86 14:49:38
Sb: UNIX(tm) Clone
Fm: HamNet*ChiefOp Scott W3VS 76703,407
To: All
Date: 22 Dec 86 09:33:09 GMT
From: The News System <mcvax!bottercs.vu.nl!usenet@seismo.CSS.GOV>
From: ast@bottercs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Subject: UNIX Clone With Source Code Available
Date: 22 Dec 86 09:33:07 GMT
Organization: VU Informatica, Amsterdam
I have recently finished rewriting UNIX from scratch. This system, called
MINIX, does not contain even a single line of AT&T code, so it can be
distributed with source code. It runs on the IBM PC, XT, and AT and
those clones that are 100% hardware compatible (not all, unfortunately).
To the average, unsophisticated user, using MINIX is indistinguishable
from using V7 UNIX. Experts will notice that some relatively less
commonly used programs and features are missing.
MINIX FEATURES:
- System call compatible with V7 UNIX (except for a couple of minor calls)
- Kernighan and Ritchie compatible C compiler is included
- Shell that is functionally identical to the Bourne shell is included
- Full multiprogramming (fork+exec; background jobs in shell: cc file.c & )
- Full screen editor vaguely inspired by emacs (modeless, autoinsert, etc.)
- Over 60 utilities (cat, cp, grep, ls, make, mount, sort, etc.)
- Over 100 library procedures (atoi, fork, malloc, stdio, strcmp, etc.)
- Supports a hard disk, but also works quite well with just floppies
- Contains programs to read and write MS-DOS diskettes
- Full operating system source code is included
- Source code for all the utilities (except C compiler) is included
- System will recompile itself (requires 640K and 2 floppies or 1 hard disk)
- C compiler source is available as a separate package
- Kernel organization radically different from UNIX and much more modular
- Software is not copy protected
Furthermore, I have written a 719 page book telling you everything
you ever wanted to know about operating systems in general and this
one in particular. The book contains the manual pages, an appendix
describing how to recompile the system from the sources supplied, a
full source code listing of the operating system (253 pages), and a
cross reference map.
The software is available in 4 packages (book is separate):
- Box of eight 360K diskettes for 640K IBM PCs (512K is sort of ok too)
- Box of eight 360K diskettes for 256K IBM PCs (no C compiler)
- Box of five 1.2M diskettes for the IBM PC-AT
- 9 track industry standard tape (1600 bpi, tar format)
All four distributions contain the full source code, about 54,000 lines,
(13%)(kernel + utilities, except the compiler), virtually all of it in C
source code for the C compiler is also available separately (as described
in the book). The C compiler is NOT based on pcc at all. It is based on
ACK (see Communications of the ACM, Sept. 1983, pp. 654-660). The following
programs are included, among others. Like the kernel, these have all been
rewritten from scratch by me, my students, people I paid to write them or in
a small number of cases, were donated by other people to whom I am grateful:
ar basename cat cc chmod chown cmp comm cp date dd df dosread echo
grep gres head kill ln login lpr ls make mkdir mkfs mknod mount mv
od passwd pr pwd rev rm rmdir roff sh shar size sleep sort split stty
su sum sync tail tar tee time touch tr true umount uniq update wc
The book and software are being sold by Prentice-Hall. They are NOT
public domain. However, the publisher does not object to people making a
limited number of copies of the software for noncommercial use. For
example professors may make copies of the software for their students.
Universities may exchange modified versions. You may make a few copies
for your friends etc. If you want to port the software to other CPUs and
sell it, you need permission from Prentice-Hall, but they will not be
unreasonable. To acquire the software, go to any bookstore and ask them
to order the book for you:
Title: Operating Systems: Design and Implementation
Author: Andrew S. Tanenbaum
Publisher: Prentice-Hall (Jan. 1987)
ISBN: 0-13-637406-9
In the book you will find a postcard that you can use to order the
software. Please don't ask me for the software. I have already spent
approximately 8000 hours over the past 5 years writing it; I don't want
to spend the next 5 years duplicating floppy disks. The book costs about
$35. The software is $79.95 per set, including the source code. I hope
most people will consider $79.95 for the binaries and sources of
something almost functionally equivalent to UNIX as being reasonable. I
know of no other software package where you get 54,000 lines of source
code for this price. As bugs are reported, I will send Prentice Hall new
disks, so that the version they sell will remain up to date. (This also
provides some incentive to buy rather than copy.)
(Our thanks to HamNet Sysop Scott Loftesness for this information.)