[TUHS] Re: Early supported UNIX manual

[Jonathan Gray <jsg@jsg.id.au>]

On Thu, Dec 22, 2022 at 11:32:50PM -0500, Phil Budne wrote:
> Noel wrote:
> >     > From: Phil Budne
> >
> >     > The cover page has:
> >     > ...
> >     > Upper right corner:
> >     > PA-1C300-01
> >     > Section 1
> >     > Issue 1, January 1976
> >     > AT&TCo SPCS
> >
> > I have a very similar manual; I got it a long time ago, and no longer recall
> > how I came by it. Minor difference: mine is for PD-1C301-01, and at the
> > bottom of the page, it says "ISSUE 1 1/30/76", followed by a prominent trade
> > secret notice.
> >
> > TUHS has a copy of this version, here:
> >
> >   https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/USDL/unix_program_description_jan_1976.pdf
> >
> > The README file in that directory:
> >
> >   https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/USDL/README
> >
> > speculates that "this is PWB/1.0" but admits "this has not yet been
> > confirmed". It's not PWB1, it's stock V6. If you look at the writeup of
> > sys1$exec(), on pg. 39 of the PDF, you'll see it describing how arguments are
> > copied into a disk buffer; that right there is the tip-off. In PWB1 (whose
> > source we do have):
> >
> >   https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=PWB1/sys/sys/os/sys1.c
> >
> > you'll see that PWB1 accumulates the arguments in a chunk of swap space.
> > V6 _does_ use a disk buffer for this:
> >
> >   https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=V6/usr/sys/ken/sys1.c
> >
> > So this is for V6.
> 
> 1. My document is the programmers manual, with sections 1-8 (I through
> VIII).  I can't say whether the document you have, and is on line is a
> PLM (program logic manual) for the same system or not (tho the dates
> and document numbers are very close).
> 
> 2. My EXEC (II) manual page has BUGS:
> "Only 512 characters of arguments are allowed"
> 
> So my manual, like yours is not for PWB.

Is there an access() system call?
https://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2021-November/024657.html

or alarm() and pause() system calls added in the v6 "50 changes"
tuhs/Applications/Spencer_Tapes/unsw3.tar.gz
usr/sys/v6unix/unix_changes
described in usr/sys/v6unix/changenotes

or changes to C such as libS/stdio, unsigned and typedef which would
later show up in the compiler on the phototypesetter version 7 tape.
https://www.darwinsys.com/history/hist.html
usr/source/c_compiler/ on the unsw3 tape may be close to that compiler,
it isn't the same as the pwb compiler.

"New archiver ... uses long (double-word) integers, which can only be
compiled by the new C compiler which we can't distribute yet."
UNIX News, May-June 1976, 6-3
tuhs/Documentation/Usenix/Early_Newsletters/197605-unix-news-n6.pdf

"a new tape is in the process of preparation, and should be available as
soon as it clears the lawyers, for the usual free license and handling
fee.  It contains the new nroff, the new C, the new I/O library (faster
& smaller than anything to date), and a bunch of other such things.  It
will be available from Bell, not the Center.  Ken is going to send a
formal notice to the News."
UNIX News, November 1976, pg 1
tuhs/Documentation/Usenix/Early_Newsletters/197611-unix-news-n11.pdf