FreeBSD 12 Looking At Dropping SVR4 Binary Compatibility

[phoronix]

Phoronix: FreeBSD 12 Looking At Dropping SVR4 Binary Compatibility

FreeBSD has long had a SVR4 (System V Release 4) compatibility layer, but FreeBSD 12 will likely do away with this support...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...-Ditching-SVR4

[starshipeleven]

The guy said the sockets are broken since "decades", which imho conveys a longer time than "a number of years".

[aht0]

Will it affect OpenSolaris compatibility layer in any way?

[schmidtbag]

I'd say this is a similar situation to when the Linux kernel dropped support for the original Pentiums; even if there are people still using them, they're probably not using the latest kernels anyway since they either won't benefit from any of the changes, or the performance would be too crappy. In the situation of anyone using SVR4 binaries, it's probably because it's an old system that the organization just can't afford to retire and/or upgrade. That implies that the OS these binaries are running on is just as old as the binaries themselves, in which case, losing this compatibility doesn't matter. And yes, obviously there could be exceptions, so spare me any nit-picky comments. But if you're using the latest version of FreeBSD with a 20+ year-old binary, I don't think that user has solid priorities.

In the unlikely event a modern FreeBSD user needs one of these binaries, I don't think it'd be that big of a deal to install an older version of FreeBSD. Use a container or VM if necessary.

[Tomin]

when the Linux kernel dropped support for the original Pentiums

Are you sure about this? I think all x86 that Linux kernel has dropped is 386. All Pentiums are still supported. I don't know, if there are any users, though.

[schmidtbag]

Are you sure about this? I think all x86 that Linux kernel has dropped is 386. All Pentiums are still supported. I don't know, if there are any users, though.

Ah whoops, you're right. Doesn't really change my point though.

[cjcox]

Will it affect OpenSolaris compatibility layer in any way?

Just curious. What Solaris binaries are you trying to run on your FreeBSD system?

[rhavenn]

Just curious. What Solaris binaries are you trying to run on your FreeBSD system?

There is a "OpenSolaris" kernel module shim to help load the ZFS kernel module, but that's about the only thing Solaris related that's in modern use. I highly doubt it has any ties to the SysV stuff at all and there is no OpenSolaris binary support that I'm aware of.

[Beherit]

The original idea for this was for users and organisations to adopt *BSD (OpenBSD and NetBSD also have this compatibility layer) and still be able to run their old proprietary SVR4 software from their old SunOS/Solaris/Xenix/etc server. This was added around year 2000, long before software virtualisation á la Virtualbox and VmWare was widely used.

If the compatibility layer indeed hasn't been working for years, and no one noticed it, I'd say it's about time to retire and remove it.

[starshipeleven]

Will it affect OpenSolaris compatibility layer in any way?

I'd say no. Besides, it seems not functional since a long time, so if OpenSolaris compatibility works fine then you have your answer.