27 Jan
1999
27 Jan
'99
4:32 a.m.
Allison Parent is probably correct that Ultrix doesn't have as impressive
a record of robustness as VMS, but there are certainly application-specific
cases where the system did pretty well. The collection of MicroVAX II parts
I have at home mostly used to be the University of Toronto's backbone IP
routers, which ran an early Ultrix (I forget if it was 2.0 or 3.0).
Evidently most of these systems just ran and ran and ran, stopping only
for hardware failures. (Probably mostly broken RD53 disks--most of the
disks that came in the parts collection were broken in one way or another.)
Although I am not a first-hand witness, the claim is that some of these
systems had uptimes as long as five years when they were finally decommissioned
in 1990 or 1991.
Anyone else got any my-UNIX-ran-longer-than-yours stories?
Norman Wilson
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From Warren Toomey <wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.edu.au> Wed
Jan 27 14:38:23 1999
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From: Warren Toomey <wkt(a)henry.cs.adfa.edu.au>
Message-Id: <199901270438.PAA01836(a)henry.cs.adfa.edu.au>
Subject: Re: UNIX robustness
In-Reply-To: <199901270434.PAA00279(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au> from
"norman(a)nose.cita.utoronto.ca" at "Jan 26, 1999 11:32:49 pm"
To: norman(a)nose.cita.utoronto.ca
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 15:38:23 +1100 (EST)
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In article by norman(a)nose.cita.utoronto.ca:
Anyone else got any my-UNIX-ran-longer-than-yours
stories?
Norman Wilson
Only <200 days here for a PC-based system, usually brought down by
power failure.
Warren
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From "Steven M. Schultz"
<sms(a)moe.2bsd.com> Wed Jan 27 15:12:57 1999
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Subject: UNIX robustness
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At least it's a different thread... ;-)
I had a UNIX system in my house that ran (and was working hard
the whole time) for over 2 years before pity was taken on it
and a beefier replacement system installed. The original system
was a 386/33 serving as a rather busy secondary nameserver and was
never touched/rebooted/powercycled for 2+ years. As time went on the
load increased and it became apparent the system was overloaded (and
paging excessively) so a P5/90 with more memory was installed. A
couple months after that the disk died ;-)
Steven
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From "Steven M. Schultz"
<sms(a)moe.2bsd.com> Wed Jan 27 15:15:08 1999
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Subject: Addendum to Unix robustness
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Hi -
I've personally seen/run a PDP-11/44 under 2.11BSD for 1 year without
reboooting. Then the power went out and spoiled the streak. Started
over and was a couple months into the new uptime and the RA81 died.
Sigh.
Steven
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From "David C. Jenner"
<djenner(a)halcyon.com> Wed Jan 27 23:23:58 1999
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To: PDP-11 Unix Preservation Society <pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au>
Subject: Re: UNIX robustness
References: <199901270512.VAA15671(a)moe.2bsd.com>
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I had (still have) a PDP-11/23+ that ran (still runs) 2.9BSD (with an
honest-to-goodness AT&T binary license) that was my UUCP link to the
net from 1989-1993. At one stretch, it ran almost two years before a
power failure finally got it.
It was unusual to go that long without a power failure, so the limiting
factor was clearly the power and not the hardware or software. The
system has a watchdog timer, so when there was a problem the system would
usually automatically reboot, unless there was a serious hardware problem.
Reboots were fairly rare and usually a power problem, so it would be hard
for me to pinpoint the cause of non-power-instigated reboots.
Dave
"Steven M. Schultz" wrote:
At least it's a different thread... ;-)
I had a UNIX system in my house that ran (and was working hard
the whole time) for over 2 years before pity was taken on it
and a beefier replacement system installed. The original system
was a 386/33 serving as a rather busy secondary nameserver and was
never touched/rebooted/powercycled for 2+ years. As time went on the
load increased and it became apparent the system was overloaded (and
paging excessively) so a P5/90 with more memory was installed. A
couple months after that the disk died ;-)
Steven
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From Ken Wellsch <kcwellsc(a)math.uwaterloo.ca> Thu
Jan 28 01:14:30 1999
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From: Ken Wellsch <kcwellsc(a)math.uwaterloo.ca>
Message-Id: <199901271514.KAA30920(a)math.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: Re: UNIX V6 Enhancements/Games
To: wkt(a)cs.adfa.oz.au
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 10:14:30 -0500 (EST)
Cc: agonza24(a)cs.fiu.edu, pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au
In-Reply-To: <199901262238.JAA05749(a)henry.cs.adfa.edu.au> from "Warren
Toomey" at Jan 27, 99 09:38:32 am
Organization: University of Waterloo, Math Faculty Computing Facility (Alumni)
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Alas I don't know the precise details, but I do remember that the
University of Waterloo had an explicit license (seperate from the UNIX
one) just for the *real* troff code. When I say "real" I mean the code
that drove a real typesetting device etc. (in PDP-11 assembler I think).
We had a highly modified copy in use for more than a decade I think,
driving successive generations of new typeset quality engines. I can
check with the fellow that really knows all this history and details
if someone is interested. -- Ken
| In article by alejandro gonzalez:
| >
| > Reading the Unix Summary, I have noticed that some packages are
| > distributed as Enhancements: Like TROFF, or some of the Games, and not in
| > the orginial distribution
| >
| > The Unix System the comes with the tapes does not come with Man, Troff,
| > etc.. Is any of this extra stuff in the Pups Archive? If so, Where?
| >
| > Alex
|
| All we have are the tapes as donated to us by Dennis Ritchie and Ken
| Wellsch. I don't know if a copy of the enhancements still exist. However,
| they may have been part of PWB UNIX, which was around at the same time as
| Research UNIX. Have a look in the Distributions/usdl section for PWB UNIX.
|
| Warren
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From Jorgen Pehrson <jp(a)spektr.eu.org> Thu Jan 28
03:21:11 1999
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From: Jorgen Pehrson <jp(a)spektr.eu.org>
To: PDP11 UNIX Preservation Society <pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au>
Subject: Re: 4.4BSD
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Thor Lancelot Simon < tls(a)rek.tjls.com> wrote:
...or vi versus Emacs.
What's that? When I want to edit text I want an editor, not an vi-itor
or an emacsitor, those aren't even words! ED is the standard editor. :)
--
Jorgen Pehrson (HP 9000/380, VAX2000, DECstation 5000/200 (NetBSD 1.3))
jp(a)spektr.eu.org (PDP11/73, PDP11/83, PDP11/83 (2.11BSD)), Intergraph 200
spektr.eu.org/~jp/ MicroVAX 3100 (NetBSD 1.3), VAXstation 4000/90 (VAX/VMS)
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From "emanuel stiebler"
<emu(a)ecubics.com> Thu Jan 28 03:41:15 1999
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From: "emanuel stiebler" <emu(a)ecubics.com>
To: "Jorgen Pehrson" <jp(a)spektr.eu.org>rg>,
"PDP11 UNIX Preservation Society" <pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au>
Subject: Re: 4.4BSD
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Hi Jorgen,
----------
From: Jorgen Pehrson <jp(a)spektr.eu.org>
To: PDP11 UNIX Preservation Society <pups(a)minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au>
Subject: Re: 4.4BSD
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 1999 10:21 AM
What's that? When I want to edit text I want an
editor, not an vi-itor
or an emacsitor, those aren't even words! ED is the standard editor. :)
SURE !!!
I think most people simply forget, that emacs doesn't work so well on a
line printer console ;-))
cheers,
emanuel