tgl@zog.cs.cmu.edu (Tom Lane) (07/25/90)
Can I take the executable file of a program compiled under HPUX 7.0 and run it under earlier versions (say 6.5 or 6.2)? Presumably the answer is "it depends". The particular case I'm interested in today is a program that uses curses(3) and hence the terminfo database; it does not use X Windows or any other graphics stuff, nor any networking libraries. For future reference, though, I'd also like to know about object code portability of X Windows applications. Any info will be greatly appreciated. E-mail if you like, and I'll summarize answers in a few days. -- tom lane Internet: tgl@cs.cmu.edu UUCP: <your favorite internet/arpanet gateway>!cs.cmu.edu!tgl BITNET: tgl%cs.cmu.edu@cmuccvma CompuServe: >internet:tgl@cs.cmu.edu
perry@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Perry Scott) (07/28/90)
>Can I take the executable file of a program compiled under HPUX 7.0 >and run it under earlier versions (say 6.5 or 6.2)? > >Presumably the answer is "it depends". The particular case I'm interested >in today is a program that uses curses(3) and hence the terminfo database; >it does not use X Windows or any other graphics stuff, nor any networking >libraries. For future reference, though, I'd also like to know about >object code portability of X Windows applications. > tom lane HP generally makes an effort to allow programs compiled on previous systems to work on the current system without recompiling. If you think about all the 3rd party binaries out there, you can see why this is important. You're talking about the opposite direction, though. If fields have been added to structures in release N+1, then revision N software is going to have trouble understanding it. This is probably true for X applications, where data structures are passed between the application and X server. Trouble spots are usually found where the program talks to the outside world, such as the kernel or to the X server. Perry Scott "not necessarily representing the policy of HP"