On Mon, 13 Oct 1997, Wilko Bulte wrote:

> > ...it'll probably be a better starting point to
> > push off from NetBSD-current...

Oh yes, without question you should start with NetBSD-current.
There have been a *lot* of changes in the Alpha port since 1.2.

> Will the upcoming 1.3 NetBSD (december 97 if I'm not mistaken?)
> use the same internal structure? I don't think I can track -current,
> but maybe a snapshot of some sorts can be used?

Well, tracking current is not that big a deal, actually, but yes,
1.3 and current are this week about as close as they will ever be. :-)
(We cut the release branch from current next Monday.)

What I'd recommend is that you install the latest snapshot on your
Multia, and learn about sup and cvs. If you can get enough disk
space (you'll want an extra gig or so) you can regularly update a
copy of a local source tree from the current source tree on
ftp.netbsd.org. Then you import this into your source tree, merge,
and presto, you've got all the latest goop with your local changes
in it.

If you don't want to go that far, I'd just do hacking based on the
current sources for the moment, and the 1.3 sources when they come
out.

> Don't shoot me for it, but there seems precious little RTFM to be done
> around NetBSD/alpha. Please correct me if I'm wrong. So getting started
> with this adventure currently is digging thru all kinds of info sources.

Yeah, it's a bit of a harsh climb. You'll probably find you get
most of your info regarding NetBSD from reading sources. If you
need hardware and whatnot info, you can get that from the documentation
Chris compiled and put up on our ftp server. I'd strongly recommend
going and reading through all of the stuff on the Alpha ports pages
on www.netbsd.org.

Oh, and you probably want to order a copy of _The Alpha Architecture
Handbook_, from Digital Press. I got mine from www.clbooks.com.

cjs

Curt Sampson    cjs@portal.ca	   Info at http://www.portal.ca/
Internet Portal Services, Inc.	   Through infinite myst, software reverberates
Vancouver, BC  (604) 257-9400	   In code possess'd of invisible folly.