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In UnixWare 7, compatibility issues are divided into three general categories: ``application compatibility'', ``source compatibility'', and ``user interface compatibility''.
See also:
Also see ``UnixWare standards conformance'' for a review of UnixWare 7 standards compliance.
``Application compatibility'' refers to the ability of the UnixWare 7 system to install and run applications compiled and packaged for other operating systems, particularly from SCO OpenServer Release 5.
An application's compiled ``binary executable'' (or, ``binary'') in UnixWare refers to a compiled object in ELF or COFF format. Binaries call library routines, system calls, driver IOCTLs, and, to a lesser extent, commands and system data files.
Thus, ``binary compatibility'', a term often used in the computer industry, means to bring these binaries unchanged over to UnixWare 7 and have them install and run.
However, the common definition of binary compatibility is too narrow to include everything an application might expect to be provided by a compatible operating system. So, we use the term ``application compatibility'' to include binary compatibility and other things that applications might need to run properly, such as shell scripts (that might be quite command intensive) and packaging, installation, and internationalization tools.
The idea of application compatibility is to take third party applications, install them (or simply copy them from a legacy machine), run them -- and they work properly. Application compatibility concerns propagating run-time interfaces that can be called or accessed by applications, or read by the kernel.
The goal for UnixWare 7 application compatibility is to get out-of-the-box, ready-to-run, legacy SCO OpenServer and UnixWare applications to run on UnixWare 7, without the installer or user having to do anything special to run the application.
For UnixWare 7, application compatibility encompasses examining, on each legacy system, the following system services and how they are used by applications:
For UnixWare the goal is to guarantee application compatibility for any application that conforms to the following binary standards:
In addition, installation tools will support installing legacy applications from either product on UnixWare. All filesystems from either product will be supported. DTFS file system can be mounted read/write; HTFS file systems will be mountable read-only.
Notable exceptions include the XENIX file system type which will not be supported. Mass storage IOCTL compatibility from SCO OpenServer to UnixWare will not be provided.
While application compatibility sounds pretty comprehensive, some things that fall outside the definition of run-time interfaces need to be brought forward. These fall under the definitions of source and user interface compatibility:
For UnixWare, the goal is to provide source compatibility for any application that conforms to the following source standards:
For UnixWare, user interface compatibility is not guaranteed for all legacy interfaces. The SCO UnixWare 1 and 2 Desktop, for example, is not supported in UnixWare 7.