Introduction to the SVR4-style Tools

#### Supplemental Linux® From Scratch - Version 13.0

### Chapter 24. SVR4-style Tools

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# Introduction to the SVR4-style Tools

## What is SVR4?

SVR4, or System V Release 4, is a version of System V, ie. Unix. The tools in this chapter aim to help working with such an environment on an LFS system. There are a few caveats to be aware of as a result of dealing with an old operating system.

## Paths

The packages in this chapter are installed to various non-standard locations inside `/usr`. The purpose behind this is to be more accurate to where UNIXen from where these tools were ported put said files, and an explanation of where said paths came from is provided below. This also prevents the tools from overwriting copies of the tools installed in LFS.

- `/bin` and `/sbin`: the traditional, pre-dating formal standardization, general toolsets; from a post-formal-standardization viewpoint, commands that conform to the System V Interface Definition and the X/Open Portability Guide version 3 (or, in Linux's case, standard Linux tools)

- `/usr/ucb`: UCB (i.e. BSD) compatibility directory with BSD-compatible tools

- `/5bin` and `/usr/5bin`: SVID3-adhering tools, aka tools compatible with AT&T Unix System 5 Release 4.0 or Solaris 2

- `/usr/5bin/s42`: SVID4-adhering tools, aka tools compatible with Unix System 5 Release 4.2MP

- `/usr/5bin/posix`: POSIX.2 and SUSv2-adhering tools

- `/usr/5bin/posix2001`: tools adhering to POSIX.1-2001 with SUSv3 extensions

- `/usr/ccs/bin`: various developer tools

- `/usr/sadm/bin`: pkgadd internal tooling

The rest of the non-standard folders' meanings can be easily deduced from basic Linux knowledge and the above.

If you want to know more about old UNIXen' path conventions, and are willing to fall down a rabbit hole of 80s-90s UNIX variants, DEC equipment and various other old UNIX conventions, old hardware and everyday jobs of UNIX sysops of the 90s, a much more comprehensive guide can be found here.

## A note on Linux, UNIX SVR4 and BSD

It is also of note that Linux tools are much closer in UI and parameters to their BSD counterparts than their SVR4 ones. If you want to use tools from this category on a daily basis and you're not familiar with UNIX SVR4, you might first need to learn how SVR4 tools work.

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