Linux programs portability.

[GNU/br0wni3]

Hi all,

Im wondering... are linux programs/software, "runnable" on other flavors of unix? for example, my company uses Solaris on their boxen, and i was assigned to install a new, more powerful and efficient chat server... if i find some for linux, can i install it on solaris as well?

Any NHF on this?

thanks! :D

br0wni3

[scott_R]

This is a little tricky to answer. Yes, in theory, as long as the program remains posix compliant it should work. The bigger issue is the software on your server. Obviously, if the programs use libraries or have other requirements (i.e., only runs in gnome/kde), and they are not installed on your server, the program won't know how to do what it needs to, and therefore won't work.

If you use X, and the client doesn't require more than X to run, you should have no problem. If it requires extra libraries, you may need to install them. Of course, installing extra stuff may be a hard sell because it may open up security issues for you.

So I guess my answer is: yes, you should be able to make almost any linux program run on your system if you invest enough time. It might not be worth the effort though. To add a little cheer to this thought though, many major programs also have ports to solaris, which may make any of this irrelevant.

[X_console]

You need to make sure you build the program from source. The ./configure process pretty much makes the guesses on what your system is and if it's missing anything. If ./configure goes well, then you should probably be safe to continue.