3 Feb
2012
3 Feb
'12
5:37 a.m.
On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 3:16 PM, Norman Wilson <norman(a)oclsc.org> wrote:
Lyndon Nerenberg:
A well designed system without library bloat can pump out some
pretty skinny static binaries.
=======
V6, for example. Or even V7 if carefully pruned.
Once upon a time, I made an RK05 disk (5MB) with a stripped-down
post-V7 for an 11/45. It had just enough programs to allow
basic file manipulation and text-processing.
We used this compact system to allow our secretaries (in a
small university department in the early 1980s) to continue
typing up papers and letters on the day the machine-room
air conditioning was being replaced. With the doors standing
open and a big fan, we were willing to leave the 11/45 running,
but not the VAX-11/780.
Due to contractor screwups (when the chilled water was turned
on, it rained up and down the hall--many poorly-soldered
joints in the copper pipes), we actually needed this for a
couple of days, so for safety I shut the system down every
evening, removed the RK05 cartridge, and took it downstairs
to the 11/34 that had a tape drive, where I booted RT11 and
took an image backup with ROLLOUT.
You may have been lucky not to need the backup images. My experience
with ROLLIN/ROLLOUT early on was that DEC software used only 200 of
the 203 tracks available on a RK05. Unix on the other hand also used
the 3 spare tracks. 4872 whole blocks. So ROLLIN backups of a Unix
RK05 did not always have everything on them.
carl
--
carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
clowenstein(a)ucsd.edu