SunOS 4.1 vs. SunOS 5.4

Here is a table of differences between SunOS 4.1 (used on csli) and SunOS 5.4 (used on turing). (View it as a list if you're not using Netscape.) I extracted it from Appendix A of the Solaris 2.3 Transition Guide by picking those commands that I thought might be relevant to users. Let me know if you think I missed other commonly used ones. If you have never used these commands before you can of course ignore the differences, although you may want to check back when you're planning to start using them on turing and on a machine that runs SunOS 4.1 (e.g. bhasha).

Note that this table does not include a list of those commands that changed or are missing from standard SunOS 5.4 but where the old command is still available in /usr/ucb. Users won't notice any difference using these commands. If you're curious or feel like you may want to try the new commands, here's a table of the most relevant ones. (View it as a list if you're not using Netscape.)

Other things you may need to adjust

Some paths have changed

These should have been set for you in your new configuration files, but be careful if you're cutting and pasting from your old configuration files on csli.

emacs default font

emacs has a bigger default font for X than it used to. You may need to change the .Xdefaults file on the machine from which you use turing remotely. If you don't have one yet, add a line which looks like this (subsitute any font size you prefer for 'fixed'):
emacs*Font: fixed

-nw switch for new emacs

The new system uses a newer version of emacs, emacs19. If you have your own personal aliases for emacs, you may need to change them and add the option -nw to make it not use the X-interface when invoked from a Mac or terminal.

emacs keyboard macros

Keyboard macros work somewhat differently in the new version of emacs on turing - one thing I have noticed is that i-searches need to be properly terminated by return, which wasn't the case in the old version (or in the new version outside of kbd macros.) For other changes in the new version of emacs see ESC-x view-emacs-news

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Susanne Riehemann (sr@csli.stanford.edu)