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=-1.1 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 1359 invoked from network); 16 Jun 2023 19:53:27 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 16 Jun 2023 19:53:27 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C2EB5425BF; Sat, 17 Jun 2023 05:53:23 +1000 (AEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=tuhs.org; s=dkim; t=1686945203; h=from:from:reply-to:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date: message-id:message-id:to:to:cc:mime-version:mime-version: content-type:content-type: content-transfer-encoding:content-transfer-encoding:list-id:list-help: list-owner:list-unsubscribe:list-subscribe:list-post; bh=yPn82dkgJiOaPPujGJdQQy0qyqaKW0TuUIgyuO8QHaM=; b=45IIfBpsadCc6UrOzXteGRJ1YFte0VunMStCrILHGz0sfYucbox94JE6b6lzUHzCreRFw9 lyJiz2INZBmINuBBwHCQNT/WGLAl0Pb3vsoVTrb3jlVFwwYn6sNnSf9nWbOsbUY9GWVZYZ gOYReMNhcK5r+pto0kfmkb8cbOgzmOs= Received: from mail-40132.protonmail.ch (mail-40132.protonmail.ch [185.70.40.132]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3B21A425BE for ; Sat, 17 Jun 2023 05:53:12 +1000 (AEST) Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2023 19:52:50 +0000 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=protonmail.com; s=protonmail3; t=1686945189; x=1687204389; bh=yPn82dkgJiOaPPujGJdQQy0qyqaKW0TuUIgyuO8QHaM=; h=Date:To:From:Subject:Message-ID:Feedback-ID:From:To:Cc:Date: Subject:Reply-To:Feedback-ID:Message-ID:BIMI-Selector; b=sAHQPBq2bmfKLAIngZcEAL+awLj4cW9SUDyTmGec+GL3gbfUCHeuRT/N8VGRANzFs B6wa4JfPlB3cvQyCrGrVODrb4yeyLAxUsutnatf8bemhCzLM2GeQQm1KawNHVuBzWs nuTsQFiuQhdaq/h7X1wTumJz3qJh9YOUcSGVeKs+Kv3QuT0YBWUItxJ0zgfrG6YbRR FjYQwD1+e5bFnBOJiwTdcqmgUGTP5qIB1PcyIjW16S9A5axWyUTN7mAOCvlbV51x56 bRXpFJqqDX2SEwbxqWzyLAXMTLNmhmtgfqksNQfrrJ5qSpVB5c1Pbo6RrSr96VNLGw YTgvszVfyZyqQ== To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Message-ID: Feedback-ID: 35591162:user:proton MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID-Hash: 4FVZT722FOMCSD4AQRDMJIG5TVKPFXKP X-Message-ID-Hash: 4FVZT722FOMCSD4AQRDMJIG5TVKPFXKP X-MailFrom: segaloco@protonmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] WECo UNIX 3B5 User's Manual Found List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: From: segaloco via TUHS Reply-To: segaloco Good day, I've just received in the mail a UNIX System User Reference Manua= l for the 3B5 computer. It has a few differences with other documentation = around it. As usual with an initial expository message, lots of info here,= mostly so it'll get in the archive and on the record. So first off, I can't find a version reference in this thing. It is brande= d as "UNIX System" consistent with the branding nomenclature in the System = V era, but I can't actually find the term "System V" anywhere thus far. Ho= wever, a high level view implies relative parity with the initial release o= f System V. There are some areas where nomenclature is closer in character= to the Release 5.0 manual, for instance, the "basinf" section in the intro= refers to the user guide as "UNIX User Guide" rather than "UNIX System Use= r's Guide" which is found in later System V stuff. In fact, this minor ref= erence may point to some branching in the documentation between 4.x and SVR= 2 as I have the following in various manuals (prior to 4.1 i.e. 3.0/SysIII = the reference is still directly to UNIX For Beginners, not a guide): - Release 4.1 - "UNIX User's Guide" - Release 5.0 - "UNIX User's Guide" - Release 5.0 BTL - "UNIX User's Guide" - System V - "UNIX System User's Guide" - System V 3B5 - "UNIX User Guide" - System V R2 BTL - "UNIX System User Guide" - System V DEC (1984) - "UNIX System User Guide" - System V R2 (1986 Manuals) - "UNIX System User's Guide" So SysV adds "System" to what was in Release 5.0, this carries through to c= onventional SVR2. The 3B5 version, however, drops the apostrophe and 's' t= hat were in the pre-SysV nomenclature but doesn't add "System". Then even = more confusing the SVR2 BTL copy appears to bear some lineage from this as = it also has the dropped apostrophe and 's' but includes "System". Strange.= Even stranger is I decided to take a peek at SVR2 docs from 1984, they la= ck the apostrophe and 's', but later SVR2 material from 1986 restores it. = I wonder if this implies the 3B5 branch was started in the 5.0 days, diverg= ed a bit, and then was only partially recombined with System V before relea= se, although on the flip side, this manual *does* include the edit, ex, and= vi manpages which were not printed in time for the System V manual run (as= they are included with a separate documentation package instead.) This tr= acks with the BTL 5.0 having edit, ex, vi, and termcap present from Holmdel= , the BTL manual got the pages early. All that to say, there are things in= this manual that aren't yet in published System V manuals at the time, but= there are things in this manual that have since been altered by the time o= f the formal System V documentation, pointing to an earlier branch point an= d then ongoing cross-talk after that. Included are references to a "3B Computer Network" and a few utilities asso= ciated. There are a few other pages too I didn't see in other contemporary= public manuals, in total: - dcon(1) - Spawns a shell on a remote system via a DATAKIT circuit - logdir(1) - Returns the home directory field from /etc/passwd, this i= s in the BTL versions, I don't see it in public SysV though - ncp(1) - Copies files over the DATAKIT network - nisend(1) - Copies files over the "3B Computer Local Network" - nistat(1) - Query the status of said network - nitable(1) - Display the configuration table of said network - niupdate(1) - Update said configuration table - nkill(1) - Kill but using process names instead of IDs, but doesn't d= efine process names, be it argv[0], the name of the image file, etc... - rexec(1) - Executes commands over a DATAKIT network - rl(1) - Login remotely over the 3B Computer Network (distinct from dc= on being DATAKIT remote logins) This appears to be uucp-derived (specifical= ly cu(1)) - dkdial(3) - Dials a DATAKIT connection - boothdr(4) - 3B5 only, provides the contents of which= supports storing parts of master(4), via mkboot(1M), in "a driver object f= ile" to be used with "the self-config boot". Section 6 is mentioned in the intro but then omitted from the rest of the m= anual, so nothing to compare there. Also keeping with the documentation ch= anges at the time, this does not include Sections 1M, 7, nor 8, as those ar= e presumably in an accompanying Administrator's Reference Manual. That is = another thing pegging this as System V rather than SVR2, by SVR2 they had f= urther divided from two to three manuals, splitting the user manual into Se= ctions 1 and 6 (User) and Sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 (Programmer) (although ev= en this isn't entirely true, I've got a "UNIX User's Manual" published in 1= 986, red ATTIS-style cover, that contains what appear to be selections from= Sections 1, 2, and 3...it seems more geared towards folks writing portable= software between SVR1 and SVR2 than anything) Finally, here are the omissions I compared with the SVR2 BTL, SVR2 DEC, and= 1986 manual mentioned above: Removed by SVR2 public, only in the BTL version: - nscstat(1) - nsctorje(1) - nusend(1) - stlogin(1) - ststat(1) Non-portable DEC stuff: - adb(1) - arcv(1) - kasb(1) - net(1) - vpr(1) - maus(2) - x25alnk(3) - This X.25 stuff never shows back up, probably dropped as= of SVR2 BTL (1983) - x25clnk(3) - x25hlnk(3) - x25ipvc(3) Non-portable 3B20S stuff: - cprs(1) - hpio(1) Honeywell/GCOS Interop, gone by SVR2 BTL (1983): - dpd(1) - dpr(1) - fget(1) - fsend(1) - gcat(1) - gcosmail(1) Graphics Subsystem, remains in SVR2 so probably not 3B5 supported as of thi= s printing: - gdev(1) - ged(1) - graphics(1) - gutil(1) - stat(1) - toc(1) So just to review, some matters this manual supports: - The initial 3B5 UNIX release seems closest in character to the initia= l System V version - Many DEC and 3B20-specific components are omitted - The Honeywell/GCOS interop was on the way out the door and likely nev= er ported - The graphics subsystem was not supported on 3B5 as of this release - Synchronous terminals and NSC networking are taken internal likely by= this release, certainly by SVR2 - The 3B5 version supported "DATAKIT" and "3B Computer Network" network= s - Included a logdir(1) command used in BTL for getting a user's login d= irectory from /etc/passwd - Included an nkill(1) command to kill a process by its (undefined) nam= e - The boot process included a header object for "driver object files" u= sed with a "self-config boot" process If there are any questions or any pages folks think I should peruse for det= ails, just let me know. Otherwise this'll won't be hitting my detailed ana= lysis for a while, I'm currently in the midst of figuring out a branching s= cheme in my mandiff repo that'll facilitate tracking the various forks, as = I've found many changes between V5 and V6 that are *not* reflected in vario= us ways throughout PWB, Program Generic, CB, and 32V (as an example, go loo= k up where lpr(I) is and isn't available.) - Matt G. P.S. Kudos to the production quality of this manual. It's a small binder, = the pages are the same size as the earlier comb-bound manuals. The binder = rings themselves are fixed to the back cover and the right side of the ring= s is flat instead of rounded, so the pages sit very nicely whether opened o= r closed. This compares with the BTL SVR2 binder where the rings are perfe= ctly round and affixed to the spine instead, so they sit differently depend= ing on whether the binder is on a shelf or open on a desk, with pages riski= ng getting all crumpled up getting bunched up at the edge of the rings. Ce= rtainly has nothing to do with software or technical history, but the physi= cal nature of the various publications has also been factoring into my stud= y. Here's a picture of the two covers by the way, since I haven't given an= y visuals on my work in a while: https://i.imgur.com/hhaaxfA.jpeg