NIO CommKit Host Interface Installation and System Administration Manual

6-2

Porting CommKit Applications To Release 4.x

Introduction

This chapter is a reference for programmers who are porting applications

from CommKit 3.2 to CommKit 4.x of the NIO CommKit Host Interface.

This chapter also contains useful information and examples for

programmers who are developing new applications using CommKit 4.x

software.

This chapter discusses the compatibility issues associated with the current

release of the CommKit software. The compatibility issues are divided into

three sections—environment variables, user-level issues, and programmer-

level issues.

• The environment variables section describes the shell variables supported by the

host interface and their effect on user commands and programmer interfaces.

• The user-level section addresses the relationship of the user-level commands to

the STREAMS architecture of the underlying software.

• The programmer-level section addresses the new library and system call

interfaces as well as how to port existing applications to the new architecture.

This new interface has been designed to hide implementation details and to

minimize future porting efforts.

The overall function of the CommKit 4.x software is identical to CommKit

3.2. Applications that use the user-level commands may have to account for

the new HP-UX system features, but may continue to interface with host

commands as they have in previous releases. Applications that use the

library and system call interfaces must be rewritten. The reprogramming

effort will, however, yield cleaner and more maintainable code.