Mixing IRAF distributions

Doug Tody wrote on Dec 16, 1999

We have gotten two queries today similar to the following:

> I think I know the answer to this, but....
> 
> Can you run Sun/Solaris IRAF and Linux/Redhat IRAF using the same source
> tree? Although I read that version 2.11.3 is "identical" for these, I assume
> that is in terms of functionality. Clearly things like the install script are
> different, but I assume there is a lot in the HSI that is different as well?
> 
> I didn't see where this was explicitly stated in the installation and
> other docs. Given that these are the largest two downloads in terms of sheer
> numbers, it might help to explcitly state this in the Site Managers' Guide
> or as a FAQ entry?

The answer is that with IRAF V2.11 it is not possible (not supported
anyway) to mix different distributions at the core system level.
Distributions like SSOL and PCIX may support multiple architectures, e.g.
5 or 6 in the case of PC-IRAF, but the core parts of IRAF are packaged
separately for different distributions.  The primary motivation for this
historically was to make the system easier to install.

The problem with mixing different distributions at the core level is that
the host system interface (HSI - unix, dev, and local) is packaged with
the portable core IRAF system directories (lib, sys, pkg, math).  In the 
future we plan to change this and package the HSI and CORE separately,
but they are still integrated in IRAF V2.11.

External packages can of course be mixed, and can support any number of
architectures with a single central distribution.

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Last post on Dec 16, 1999