On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 2:33 PM, Enrico Weigelt <weigelt@metux.de> wrote:

> * Gorka Guardiola <paurea@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 2:31 PM, Enrico Weigelt <weigelt@metux.de>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi folks,
> > >
> > > just curious: which binfmt does Plan9 use ?
> > > How are share libraries handled (if they exist at all) ?
> >
> > a.out(6)
> > no shared libraries.
>
> ah, already suspected that ;-o
>
> I know that plan9's standard libraries are so small, that they
> dont really need to be shared. But when more and more applications
> von *nix world get ported, the problem might arise again.
>

Well, I know that it is very tempting to "just" port across lots of
programs. But if you are looking to solve an actual problem (in a business
or "just do it" sense) and there is nothing on Plan 9 to help you with that,
then use Linux or Windows or OSX or ...

On the other hand, if you are really interested in providing functionality
to be used within Plan 9 that I'd strongly suggest investigating more than a
port. Re-implementing using the appropriate Plan 9 approach would be way
more beneficial.


> And another important feature of shared libraries is, that when
> some lib is updated, importing programs dont have to be recompiled.
> What's the Plan9 solution here ?
>

:-) Recompile.

(The usual argument to counter this approach is that security updates to
underlying libs are easier to get out across to everyone, while at the same
time completely ignoring the depths of DLL Hell and the myriads of
wonderfull new ways to break perfectly fine software all over the place. Me,
cynical, noooo! :-)


Robby