diff /usr/bin/ps /usr/ucb/ps

[grindel]

I'm confused - as the subject suggests, if I do a
"diff /usr/bin/ps /usr/ucb/ps" I get no differences at all. The files are the same size, the checksums are the same. But, they are different programs! Dude, WTF????

 

[daFranze]

there is a program named isaexec, which contains the code of several Commands:

# ls -ail /usr/bin/ps /usr/ucb/ps
490440 -r-xr-xr-x 42 root bin 5416 Apr 7 2002 /usr/bin/ps
490440 -r-xr-xr-x 42 root bin 5416 Apr 7 2002 /usr/ucb/ps
# find / -inum 490440
/usr/bin/newtask
/usr/bin/nohup
/usr/bin/prctl
/usr/bin/prstat
/usr/bin/ps
/usr/bin/savecore
/usr/bin/setuname
/usr/bin/uptime
/usr/bin/w
/usr/bin/pargs
/usr/bin/pcred
/usr/bin/pfiles
/usr/bin/pflags
/usr/bin/pldd
/usr/bin/pmap
/usr/bin/ppgsz
/usr/bin/preap
/usr/bin/prun
/usr/bin/psig
/usr/bin/pstack
/usr/bin/pstop
/usr/bin/ptime
/usr/bin/ptree
/usr/bin/pwait
/usr/bin/pwdx
/usr/bin/sort
/usr/bin/adb
/usr/bin/mdb
/usr/bin/gcore
/usr/bin/plimit
/usr/bin/truss
/usr/bin/prex
/usr/bin/tnfxtract
/usr/bin/cputrack
/usr/lib/isaexec
/usr/sadm/lib/wbem/rds
/usr/sbin/lockstat
/usr/sbin/prtconf
/usr/sbin/swap
/usr/sbin/sysdef
/usr/sbin/whodo
/usr/ucb/ps
^C# grep /usr/ucb/ps /var/sadm/install/contents
/usr/ucb/ps=../../usr/lib/isaexec l none SUNWscpu
#

I think onlz Sun can tell zou whz thez designed it like that...

Best Regards, Franz
--
Solaris System Manager from Munich, Germany
I used to work for Sun Microsystems Support (EMEA) for 5 years

 

[achech]

Here is the reason, I believed:

The /usr/bin/ps came from SVR4 (Solaris 2.X/7/8/9, or SunOS5.X), and the /usr/ucb/ps came from BSD (Solaris 1.X, or SunOS4.X).

At looong time ago they were different, but now the BSD almost gone, there is no need to maintain two different version anymore...


Cheers,


Achech

 

[spamly]

This is fairly common. A programmer will write a single piece of code and depending on what name is used to call it, it will act appropriately. Here's a silly little script that I run to mount a cdrom on an AIX system which shows this:

#!/usr/bin/ksh

if [ $0 = /usr/local/bin/mount-cdrom ] ; then
        mount -V cdrfs -o ro /dev/cd0 /mnt
elif [ $0 = /usr/local/bin/umount-cdrom ] ; then
        umount /mnt
elif [ $0 = /usr/local/bin/unmount-cdrom ] ; then
        umount /mnt
fi

exit

Depending on which name I use to call it, it will either mount or unmount a cdrom.