[haiku-bugs] Re: [Haiku] #15120: Linux binary compatibility
- From: "Haiku" <trac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
- Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2019 15:53:31 -0000
#15120: Linux binary compatibility
----------------------------+----------------------------
Reporter: megastallman | Owner: nobody
Type: enhancement | Status: closed
Priority: normal | Milestone: Unscheduled
Component: System | Version: R1/Development
Resolution: invalid | Keywords:
Blocked By: | Blocking:
Has a Patch: 0 | Platform: All
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Changes (by waddlesplash):
* status: new => closed
* resolution: => invalid
Comment:
Haiku already has BeOS compatibility layer in 32-bit versions, so is it
possible to implement Linux compatibility for 64-bit versions?
No. The BeOS compatibility is not a "layer", it was that the Haiku ABI
began as the BeOS ABI, and we extended it for GCC4 versions (but kept the
ability to build a BeOS-compatible ABI on GCC2 versions.) BeOS syscalls
were not public, which meant that Haiku syscalls and BeOS syscalls are
very different; only the libc API was stable.
Linux, on the other hand, has public-facing syscalls that anyone can (and
does) use. So to make a FreeBSD-style Linuxulator, we would need to do the
same thing they did, and implement a syscall compatibility layer.
Of course, it would require the ELF-parser
Haiku already uses ELF format for binaries. Did you do any research at all
before requesting this?
half of the Linux syscalls implementation
Half? Which half is that? It would require an entire syscalls
implementation, just like FreeBSD does.
networking for Linux
I don't know what this means...
a VFS layer
All kernels have a VFS layer. We would not need a new one for this.
FreeBSD's Linuxulator does not have its own, IIRC.
pulseaudio client, X11 DDX-component
These are not part of Linux. Were you really referring to "Linux GUI apps
binary compatibility"? That is a completely different thing (and perhaps
possible without doing an in-kernel syscalls emulation, as most GUI apps
use a shared glibc or the like.)
But it is actually even more work than just the straight "Linux syscalls
emulation." FreeBSD gets away with just that because, indeed, they use
X11, and so Linux apps can talk to X like normal. We do not, so indeed we
would have to port an X11 server.
That is a big amount of work, but it can attract more new users to
Haiku, especially those, relying on the software that is unavailable for
Haiku.
If there is software unavailable for Haiku, we should just port it. That's
all.
So, we have no interest in this; it is a massive amount of work for
little, if any, benefit.
--
Ticket URL: <
https://dev.haiku-os.org/ticket/15120#comment:1>
Haiku <
https://dev.haiku-os.org>
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