Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!bronze!copper!templon
From: templon@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (jeffrey templon)
Subject: MacMinix - time has come for definitive set of patches
Message-ID: <1991May5.191214.15212@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Sender: news@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington IN.
Date: Sun, 5 May 91 19:12:14 GMT
Lines: 27


I have seen a lot of messages in the last while, wanting to know what
to do to fix bugs in the MacMinix PH distribution.  I have found
many patches, some by J. Pickert who was (is?) 'in charge' of Mac
Minix, by searching the LISTSERV at vm1.nodak.edu.  These patches
sometimes are not orthogonal, i.e. a later patch would come out
that would try to perform the same patch as a previous patch, or
sometimes there were some hints that something else should have been
patched before trying the current fix, but it was not made explicit
what.  This is a very trying situation.

I would like to see a definitive set of patches to the PH Macminix
distribution, either coming from the "brass" or agreed upon by
consensus here.  I am not talking about enhancements to minix; I
am speaking about things like the bug which prevents macwrite from
writing a binary file, etc.  One important point is, does everyone
have the SAME PH distribution 'minix', or have they been changing the
distribution to reflect the latest fixes?  This would be really bad.

One thing that could help - I understand there is some mechanism in
the patch utility which can warn the user if there are some prerequisites
to the current fix, like an earlier patch.  I think this is called
the 'patchlevel.h' file.

Would be interested to hear other minixers' opinions.

					jt
