4.2 BSD

4.2 BSD
Logging into a 4.2 BSD system
Type:	Multitasking, multiuser
Creator:	CSRG, University of California, Berkeley
Architecture:	VAX, Sun theoretically portable
This Version:	4.2 (1983)
Date Released:	1983

4.2 BSD follows the betas of 4.1a & 4.1b. 4.2 BSD Is special because it incorporates the first versions of BSD TCP/IP, and FFS. 4.2 BSD addresses the performance issues that are reported in 4.0 BSD. The prior versions of 4.1X BSD were the 'test' versions onward to the stable version of 4.2 . This release is also the last that was led by Bill Joy, and this was used as the basis for SunOS. Later SUN licensed SYSV from AT&T and started to incorporate the two versions, before switching to the SYSV kernel in Solaris.

It is worth noting that 4.2 BSD's TCP/IP is *NOT* compatable with 4.3 and onward, as it incorrectly handles 'negative' sequence values.

The Cuckoo's Egg

When Clifford Stoll was hunting his hacker from UCB, The BSD in widespread use was 4.2 BSD. It's an interesting book, to take you back to what the mindset was of the people running 4.2 BSD was back then. A PDF can be found here.

Book information

• The Cuckoo's Egg
• Clifford Stoll
• Doubleday 1989
• ISBN 0-385-24946-2

How do I get this to run?!

The Unix Heritage Society's archives have copies of most 4-BSD variants http://minnie.tuhs.org/TUHS/ However, they're not immediately in ready-to-use-in-SIMH tape format. There is a repository of SIMH-ready tape images up here.

4.2BSD is in ready to run format on sourceforge

Installation instructions for SIMH can be found here.

What Runs?

Some early GNU stuff will compile, but not very much otherwise. There is also a copy of Zork included in this version.

Early 1.x versions of GCC will build on 4.2 BSD, allowing you to compile early versions of hack.