1 TOP 2 Version 3.5 3 4 William LeFebvre 5 and a cast of many 6 7INSTALLATION 8 9Configuration and installation of top is very straightforward. After 10unpacking the sources, run the script "Configure". It will present you 11with a series of questions, all of which should be explained in the 12presentation. After you have answered all the questions, "Configure" will 13perform all the necessary configuration. Once this is finished, type 14"make install". Make will compile the sources then install the resulting 15executable and manual page in the appropriate places. 16 17The most difficult step in the configuration is the choice of an 18appropriate machine-specific module. The Configure script gives you a 19list of choices complete with brief descriptions of when each choice is 20appropriate. Each module is contained in a separate c file in the 21directory "machine". The module contains all of the machine-specific code 22that makes top work correctly on the architecture in question. All of the 23code in the top-level directory is machine-independent (or at least 24strives to be). Hints for some module choices that are not obvious are 25given at the end of this file. 26 27The first comment in each c file in that directory contains the synopsis 28AND a detailed description of the machines for which that module is 29appropriate. It also contains a list of authors for that module. If you 30are really stumped in this choice, use grep to find your machine 31manufacturer's name or operating system name in machine/*.c. If you still 32can't find one that is appropriate, then chances are very good that one 33hasn't been written yet. If that is the case, then you are out of luck. 34 35HANDLING MULTIPLE ARCHITECTURES 36 37If you need to recompile top for a different architecture (that is, using 38a different module) you need to reconfigure top. A short cut is available 39to make this a little easier. If all of your previous answers to the 40configuration questions (except for the module name of course) are 41adequate for the new architecture, then you can just use the command 42"Configure <modulename>". The configuration script will reconfigure top 43using the new module and all the answers you gave last time. It will 44finish with a "make clean". Once that completes, type "make install" 45and make will compile the sources and do the installation. 46 47HANDLING MULTIPLE OS VERSIONS 48 49By far the most frequently received bug report for top is something like 50this: "We just upgraded our operating system to version 99.9.9.9 and top 51broke. What should we do?" The simple answer is "recompile". 52 53Top is very sensitive to changes in internal kernel data structures 54(especially the proc and user structures). Some operating systems 55(especially SunOS) are notorious for changing these structure in every 56minor release of the OS. This means that a top executable made under one 57version of the OS will not always work correctly (if even at all) under 58another version. This is just one of those tough facts of life. There is 59really no way around it. 60 61To make life even worse, some operating systems (SunOS again) will use 62slightly different proc and user structures on different models. For 63example, "top" built on a SparcStation 2 will not run correctly on a 64SparcStation 10, even if they are both running SunOS 4.1.3. These 65unfortunate circumstances make maintaining top very difficult, especially 66in an environment that runs several different versions of the same 67operating system. 68 69But there is hope. If your operating system has a properly functioning 70"uname" command then you can handle this problem rather gracefully. 71Included in the distribution is a shell file called "metatop". All this 72shell file does is: 73 74 exec top-`uname -m`-`uname -r` "$@" 75 76So when you run this script, it execs a filename that is unique to your 77specific machine architecture and your OS revision number. 78 79To use "metatop", do the following: 80 81 . on any machine, run Configure and choose the module that is 82 appropriate for the machine 83 . for all machines which use the same module: 84 . group machines according to machine architecture AND OS 85 revision number (i.e.: sun4-4.1.1, sun4c-4.1.1, sun4c-4.1.2, 86 sun4-4.1.3, sun4c-4.1.3, sun4m-4.1.3, ...) 87 . for each group, choose one machine from that group and on it 88 run "make clean; make installmeta". 89 90 91The "installmeta" rule in the makefile will insure that top is compiled, 92install the shell file "metatop" as "top", then install the executable 93"top" with a name appropriate to the machine architecture and OS revision. 94 95 96HINTS FOR CHOOSING THE CORRECT MODULE: 97 98SOLARIS 2.x 99 100All versions of Solaris will now work with the module sunos5. Version 101specific modules (such as sunos54) no longer exist. 102 103 104SUNOS 4.x AND MULTIPROCESSOR ARCHITECTURES 105 106First, we need to be speaking the same language: 107 108sun4 a regular sparc sun 4 architecture machine (sparc station 1, 109 sparc station 2, IPC, SLC, etc.) 110 111sun4m a multiprocessor sparc (Sparc 10, 4/670, 4/690) 112 113I intended to write the sunos4 module so that an executable compiled on a 114sun4m machine would work correctly on a sun4 machine. Unfortunately my 115experiments indicate that this cannot be done. It turns out that the user 116structure is so different between these two architectures that nothing 117short of a serious hack will make the same executable work correctly on 118both machines. I recommend that you use the separate module "sunos4mp" 119when making an executable for a sun4m architecture, and use "sunos4" when 120making an executable for sun4 or sun4c architectures. 121 122DIGITAL UNIX V4.0 123 124This is the successor to DECOSF/1. Use the module decosf1. 125 126SOLBOURNE OPERATING SYSTEM (OS/MP) 127 128If you are running OS/MP version 4.1A, then use the module "osmp4.1a". 129 130If you are running a version of OS/MP OLDER than 4.1A (that is, one 131of its predecessors), use the module "sunos4". 132 133If you are running OS/MP 4.1B or LATER, use the module "sunos4mp". 134 135HP/UX OPERATING SYSTEM 136 137The module hpux8 works on all version 8 systems. Some say that it works 138with version 9 as well, but one user did send me a separate module for 139version 9. This module has only been tested on series 800 machines. I 140would recommend the following for those running version 9: try hpux9 and 141if it doesn't work then try hpux8. If neither work, then send mail to me 142and/or the modules' authors. Another note: we have a model 730 supposedly 143running version 9.01. The module hpux9 did not compile successfully, but 144the module hpux8 worked fine. The module hpux10 works on all revisions of 145HP/UX 10 except 10.10, where HP removed the definition of the proc structure 146from the system include files. 147 148NET/2 386BSD SYSTEMS 149 150If your version of the operating system has patchkit 2.4 installed, 151then you will need to modify machine/m_386bsd.c and uncomment the 152definition of PATCHED_KVM. This patchkit makes what more than a few 153people believe to be a wholly unnecessary patch to the way the kvm 154routines work. 155 156A/UX SYSTEMS 157 158There is a module for A/UX 3.0 and 3.1. Whether or not it works for 159any other version is not known. Proceed at your own risk. 160 161Although AUX does not generally have a renice systemcall, it can be 162implemented by tweeking kernel memory. The flag IMPLEMENT_SETPRIORITY 163controls the inclusion of this code. It is off be default. While 164such a simple hack should not be difficult to get right, USE THIS 165FEATURE AT YOUR OWN RISK! 166 167