HP-UX 11i Version 2 December 2007 Release Notes

Support
HP is committed to providing investment protection via compatibility as outlined above. Any
owner of application code that meets the criteria for compatibility, who has encountered a
compatibility failure as defined by this document, should contact HP through a special support
line (for North America) at 1-800-249-3294 and use option 2. Help is also available alternatively
by sending an e-mail to dspp.dev@hp.com. Please identify the problem as a “compatibility
failure.”
Definition of Terms and Levels of Compatibility
There are multiple types of compatibility that need to be defined.
Forward Compatibility means that there is compatibility between a version and a later
version. It does not mean or include compatibility going from the later version to the previous
version. All references to compatibility in this document are for forward compatibility only.
Build environment compatibility means that application build environments (makefiles,
script files, etc.) can be moved and used unchanged from the original system to the target
system.
Source compatibility refers to the ability to compile the same application code source file
on an original system and a compatible system with different versions of the HP compiler.
Binary compatibility refers to the ability to compile an application on a specific solution
(architecture, hardware platform, Operating system version) to produce a binary file. That
binary file, without modification, can be run on the solution where it was created and it can
be on a target solution which is binary compatible.
Data compatibility means that the data format on the different targets is the same.
“Well-behaved” User Space Applications: HP-UX provides compatibility for applications
that are user space (as opposed to kernel intrusive) applications that are “well behaved.” A
“well behaved” user space application is an application that adheres to the following
characteristics:
Uses only documented public application programming interfaces (APIs) (Documented
interfaces are those found in the system manual [man] pages or at http://docs.hp.com)
— Is not a kernel intrusive application
— Adheres to standard development practices (for example: a shared library cannot be
dependent on an archive library, etc.)
— Does not use features that are specifically documented as having platform architecture
or configuration limitations
— Has no software dependencies on specific types of hardware (e.g., specific mass storage
devices or specific I/O or networking adapters)
Does not decompose an HP-UX product and then reuse the results of the decomposition.
(For example: extracting and using a module from a system library, or copying a system
library or command from one release to another, etc.)
For More Information
See the following Web sites:
http://www.hp.com/go/hpux11i
http://www.hp.com/go/integrity
Compatibility Issues or Exceptions in HP-UX 11i v2 December 2007
Compatibility issues or exceptions have been noted for the following products or features that
have been updated in December 2007. For details, see the indicated pages.
4
4. For documentation of compatibility issues or exceptions in previous updates to HP-UX 11i v2, see the previous
editions of the HP-UX 11i v2 Release Notes, available at http://docs.hp.com/en/oshpux11iv2.html. The
HP-UX 11i v2 September 2004 Release Notes, in particular, lists compatibility exceptions from HP-UX 11i v1 to HP-UX
11i v2.
36 Introduction to HP-UX 11i Version 2