From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 6180 invoked from network); 20 Jul 2020 19:15:53 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 20 Jul 2020 19:15:53 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id BDE3A9BB2F; Tue, 21 Jul 2020 05:15:50 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DCFBD9BA30; Tue, 21 Jul 2020 05:15:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 84AE69BA30; Tue, 21 Jul 2020 05:15:09 +1000 (AEST) X-Greylist: delayed 461 seconds by postgrey-1.36 at minnie.tuhs.org; Tue, 21 Jul 2020 05:15:09 AEST Received: from cfcl.com (cpepool4cmts2-144.sanbrunocable.com [24.143.248.144]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 254749BA2A for ; Tue, 21 Jul 2020 05:15:09 +1000 (AEST) Received: from spot.local (spot.local [IPv6:fe80::108f:61b6:e9ea:e7ae]) by cfcl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2188811AB439; Mon, 20 Jul 2020 12:07:27 -0700 (PDT) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 13.0 \(3608.40.2.2.4\)) From: Rich Morin In-Reply-To: <20200720094648.GE15253@ancienthardware.org> Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2020 12:07:25 -0700 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <2966979D-066B-408E-A4D7-D0F50BE14109@cfcl.com> References: <20200717195718.GM18565@mcvoy.com> <77c0536b-87b8-44dd-96fd-76d8ceba30f2@localhost> <2135afdb-db52-05d2-9af6-24ad36367db3@tnetconsulting.net> <40a70393-894a-4b21-8678-a71bbca4aa69@localhost> <8e7efd45-a84e-cf20-9d30-8222357596a3@tnetconsulting.net> <202007200847.06K8l8DF026646@freefriends.org> <20200720094648.GE15253@ancienthardware.org> To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3608.40.2.2.4) Subject: Re: [TUHS] A/UX [was Linux is on-topic] X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" My spouse (Vicki Brown) worked in the initial A/UX group and I = contracted for it (reviewing the man pages). Here are a few historical = tidbits... A number of A/UX boxes were purchased and immediately reloaded with Mac = OS (because only the A/UX boxes were available with 80 MB disk drives). A/UX had an "Eschatology" feature whose purpose was to bring a damaged = operting system back to a known working state. It was based on a text = file of metadata and a small set of replacement files (e.g., commands). The A/UX installation kit was delivered on several dozen floppy disks. = In order to minimize the number of disks, Vicki implemented a bin = packing algorithm. It grabbed promising sets of files, compressed them, = and checked the resulting size. One challenge in building the kit was creating a boot floppy. To make = this possible, Vicki created a precursor to busybox: a single program = which ran under various names, providing subsets of common commands' = functionalities. Because this shared the libraries, it saved lots of = space... -r