From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <3d4edb748d4f9951533dea09d942e29e@plan9.bell-labs.com>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] suggestion: avoiding out of date binaries
From: "Russ Cox" <rsc@plan9.bell-labs.com>
In-Reply-To: <20030519075521.9853.qmail@g.bio.cse.psu.edu>
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Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 04:01:13 -0400
Topicbox-Message-UUID: b2d1f4b2-eacb-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

> The kernels on a recently installed system weren't up to date, if I
> recall correctly.

The install CD is woefully out of date.  So are the kernels on sources.
It's hard to tell if the kernels are out of date because they
contain the time they were compiled, so cmp isn't enough.
The next time I install kernels on sources (which requires
more testing than installing binaries) I'm going to retire the
old install CD and make the nightly regenerated snapshot the
default install CD.

> Also, during the install, I reshaped a window and got an error from
> /dev/draw via a failing echo command.  8.5 never complained about
> stuff like that!

I'm having a hard time parsing this.  8.5 is replaced by rio, not /dev/draw.
The failing echo command is completely separate from both.
There are some background processes trying to guard against
people who touch the mouse without knowing what they're doing.
In particular, every time a prompt comes up in the main
window, it runs

	echo top >/dev/wctl
	echo current >/dev/wctl

or something like that.  That's probably what failed, though
I can't imagine why.  I can't think of any reasons you'd echo
anything into a file in the /dev/draw hierarchy.

Russ