Re: Solaris JDK on Linux? (Re: Solaris source)

Eric Youngdale (eric@andante.jic.com)
Wed, 30 Apr 1997 00:40:36 -0400

>> On another note, Linux on x86 has had the ability to run some
>> Solaris x86 binaries for quite some time using the iBCS package. From
>> what I can tell, very few people use it, so I don't really put any time
>> into it any more.
>
>Would it be *theoretically* possible to run JDK 1.1.1 for Solaris/x86
>on Linux with iBCS? I bet you'd get a whole lot of people that would
>_really_ appreciate it... ;-)

Yes, it is more than theoretically possible. The main thing
you need is the dynamic loader and the shared libraries that are built
as ELF shared libraries.

This isn't hard - we basically have the libraries already, and
I have even gotten a number of SVr4 utilities to run under Linux. The
problem at the moment is that they are kind of moldy. It is just that
very few people really seem to care about running SVr4 binaries under
Linux, so I am not bothering to maintain the SVr4 compatibility
libraries.

Note that I am *NOT* saying that few people want to use iBCS
in general. That comes in quite useful for SCO binaries as well, and
I think that most people who want iBCS need it for SCO binaries.

-Eric