[indiana-discuss] [osol-discuss] why gnu chmod in os2008.11?

[Dave Miner]

Brian Smith wrote:
> Dave Miner wrote:
>> We're not going to do that in the installer, as it's a question too
>> subtle for explanation there, and it isn't something that is absolutely
>> necessary to get the system up and running.  For OpenSolaris, we've
>> chosen the default which makes the most sense for the most users, just
>> as with every other default.  The solution here is to fix the utilities.
> 
> What is the strategy to "fix the utilities"? Will the GNU utilities be
> modified to be supersets of their Solaris counterparts? What is the strategy
> for the cases where the default behavior is different between the Solaris
> version and the GNU version (and/or when the GNU version is non-POSIX by
> default, by design) like "tar" and "make"?
> 

My opinion is that the GNU utilities should be modified, with 
modifications fed back upstream, so that we get maximum leverage going 
forward.  Maintaining separate versions is a cost that Sun is unlikely 
to be able to continue to justify long-term.  But it's only my opinion, 
not a decision.

> What is the plan for the default path in Solaris 11? Will it be like Solaris
> 10 or OpenSolaris? Because, I think there are a lot of OpenSolaris users
> like me who would like to see as much compatibility between OpenSolaris and
> whatever ends up in Solaris 11, as much as possible. In particular, the
> defaults for OpenSolaris and Solaris 11 should be the same, at the very
> least (and, AFAICT, that means they have to be the same as in Solaris 10, if
> I understand the compatibility guarantee).
> 

Past compatibility guarantees certainly do not require that things such 
as a default user PATH value must be carried forward to subsequent 
releases; the binary compatibility offered with Solaris has always been 
much narrower than that.  We've not yet made (and I won't make here, 
because it's not my place to do so) any statements about what 
compatibility there will be between OpenSolaris and any other product, 
including a hypothetical Solaris 11.

Dave