Question

I have a program that i compiled and ran using third party lib on solaris 8. after it ran successfully I ported it to solaris 10 without issues. Do i really need to compile/link and create a new exe on solaris 10? despite me testing the executable I made on solaris 8? Seems weird that I would need to. can someone shed some light on this matter?

thanks

Answer 1

Sun makes a binary compatibility guarantee that anything built to run on Solaris 8 or Solaris 9 will work on Solaris 10. When I worked in the Solaris world, I would link my code built in Solaris 10 with libraries built for Solaris 8 (binaries from 3rd party vendors, so I couldn’t have recompiled if I wanted).

This is also the explanation for why their build tools may have some implementation issues (I encountered many issues in their SunStudio compilers/libraries that weren’t fixed due to the need to ensure compatibility).

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris/overview/guarantee-jsp-135402.html

Solaris Binary Application Guarantee Program

The Solaris Application Guarantee reflects Sun’s confidence in the compatibility of applications from one release of Solaris to the next and is designed to make re-qualification—let alone porting—a thing of the past.

If an application runs on Solaris 2.6, 7, 8 or 9, including their initial release and all updates, it will run on Solaris 10, including its initial release and all updates, even if the application has not been recompiled for Solaris 10 — guaranteed. Binary compatibility between releases of Solaris helps protect your long term investment in the development, training and skills development for your applications.