ETXTBSY RE: "text file busy" and (was RE: FW: OT: broken/useless ansi...)

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Wed, Oct 26, 2005 at 06:35:28PM -0500, Paul McNary wrote:
> JP's post goes into detail about SCO's response.

Yes, I've just gotten done eviscerating that as well.

> If I understand this correctly. This decision was made to SYS V V 4
> long before SCO had anything to do with it. I feel copying over
> a binary that is use is a system management issue. Just because
> it got trapped in the old days doesn't mean it was correct 
> procedure. Do you wish to have the system trap for rm -r *?
> Why is this different from any file being overwritten?

I've already answered that point, in detail.

>                                                           UNIX
> has always allowed overwrite without notice. Do we want to go the
> Windows route and ask a dozen times if it is OK to delete?

Overwriting files that the OS assumes it's safe to swap back in from is
not acceptable; clearly this is obvious because otherwise ETXTBSY
wouldn't have gotten created in the first place. 

I'm fairly certain I could source an anecdote noting that the error
*postdates* the capability; if I can't, I have Dennis' email address; I
could write and ask him.

> I happen to like OSR6 and have not experienced the problems
> noted. The console works fine with the right termcap/terminfo. The
> packages we develop have worked fine. Please don't blame SCO
> for something that wasn't their choice to make and to me doesn't
> sound like a major issue with proper procedures. 

If SVR4 introduced the problem, then *it* is irretrivably Broken As
Designed.  But that doesn't excuse SCO.

> I have almost always used the console for applications. Lately,
> however, I have been deploying in server only environments and
> let the clients be responsible for compatility. Thin clients
> running linux or whatever offer standardization and stability.
> The console doesn't matter in this situation. Also SCO has
> discussed the console situation and if I understand them correctly
> improvements are being looked at.

And I'm not on about the text console driver.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
Designer                          Baylink                             RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates        The Things I Think                        '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA      http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274

	"NPR has a lot in common with Nascar... we both turn to the left."
		- Peter Sagal, on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!