On Tue, 29 Dec 1998 10:06:47 -0700, Dale Carstensen wrote:
>Hello folks,
>
>This is on Red Hat 5.2 plus the December 16, 1998, errata updates.
>
>I untarred jdk-1.1.7-v1a-glibc-x86-native.tar.gz (from the infomagic mirror.)
>Contrary to the README, the guts are not in ./jdk1.1.7, they are in
>./jdk117_v1a, and there are intervening sub-directories under bin, include
>and lib, too (i686/native_threads for bin and lib, native_threads for include,
>but then include only has one file anyway.)
The Native Threads archive is just an add-on to the standard archive. This
is why there seems to be minimal information in the directory. The directory
name has changed each time we do a new version - I guess we missed getting
them all updated in the readme files. Sorry about that.
Note that the readme should tell you that the native_threads archive
is just an "add on" to the standard green_threads archive. There are
many things that only exist in the base archive that are needed
in addition to the native_threads package.
>From the README.linux file:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Native Threads support
----------------------
Starting with the 1.1.7 v1a port of the Java Virtual Machine, we have
added native thread support. Traditionally, the JVM used user based
threads, also known as "green" threads. Native threads, on the other
hand, use the operating system to do the task switching.
Native threads are thus a benefit in multi-processor (SMP) systems
and they tend to make native method invocation support easier to
deal with.
Native threads do have some limitations relative to green threads.
They require more overhead and are limited to the number of processes
your Linux kernel supports.
Native thread support is new as of 1.1.7 v1a due to the wonderful
effort of Phill Edwards.
To install the native threads package, you need to first download
the JDK, JRE, or RT and install that. Next, you need to get the matching
native threads package and install that into the same location.
Finally, to use the native threads version of the JVM, you need
to set the THREADS_FLAG environment variable to "native"
Note, that while the native threads support works very well and has
been tested by the Java-Linux porting team, it should still be viewed
as "beta" code as it has not had the extended testing that the
green threads code has.
Also, at this time there is no native threads support for libc5 systems.
Only glibc based Linux systems.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
>So, why does the 1.1.7 README (release notes) not match reality, at least
>for the infomagic mirror? Where are the missing Thread and JavaP classes for
>1.1.7 and whatever version (how can I tell which version it is) comes with
>RH5.2? Do I not have the threads support that native threads requires (how
>can I know whether I have it?)
Sorry about the naming thing. We had changed things a number of times
and with a number of people writing the README file it just did not
work out very well. We should try to get all of the wording looked over
again.
However, the readme does specifically tell you that you need to download
either the JDK, JRE, or RT in green thread format and then add on the
native threads package for that.
>Oh, and what is the purpose of the jre and rt tar files? And does the
>common directory, with its diffs.gz file (which isn't compressed, at least
>not the infomagic mirror copy), have anything to do with 1.1.7? It appears
>to me to be diffs from Sun's source, which I guess isn't publicly available
Well, the RT package is just the run-time without the international
UNICODE support. The JRE is basically the RT plus the I18N files.
The JDK is the JRE plus all of the code needed to develop java programs
in addition to running them.
For more details as to the differences, see the Sun readme files.
Michael Sinz -- Director of Research & Development, NextBus Inc.
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] --------- http://www.nextbus.com
My place on the web ---> http://www.users.fast.net/~michael_sinz
