"Thomas Mueller" <mueller6724%bellsouth.net@localhost> writes:
> I wonder how other OSes and other package managers, or lack of package
> manager, get along without osabi.
In Linux it seems to be some combination of having the kernel and
include files in a package and difficulty updating. My hazy impression
is that people who run Linux need to reinstall from scratch every few
years.
> If I try pkgsrc in Linux, then I run into osabi difficulties if I
> choose between several kernels?
Probably; you could spiff up osabi to know that mulitple kernels have
the same abi.
Also, only a few programs depend on osabi.
> It could also be a nuisance to one who tracks NetBSD-current.
It's a minor annoyance at times, but it also forces rebuilding programs
that might depend on the system ABI, so really it's a feature.