NetBSD supports running OSF/1 (a.k.a Digital Unix, a.k.a. Tru64) binaries on
NetBSD/alpha systems. Most programs should work, including the ones that use the shared object libraries. Programs that make direct MACH system calls will not work. The OSF/1 compatibility feature is active for kernels compiled with the
COMPAT_OSF1 option enabled (see
options(4)).
To run dynamically linked programs, you will need the OSF/1 shared libraries, runtime linker, and certain configuration files found in /etc. These are installed in a “shadow root” directory called
/emul/osf1. Any file operations done by OSF/1 programs run under
NetBSD will look in this directory first, and fall back to the file system proper. So, if an OSF/1 program opens
/etc/svc.conf,
NetBSD will first try to open
/emul/osf1/etc/svc.conf, and if that file does not exist it will then try
/etc/svc.conf. Shared libraries and configuration specific to OSF/1 should be installed in the shadow tree.
Setting up /emul/osf1
The simple technique is to install pkgsrc/emulators/osf1_lib. (You may also want to install pkgsrc/www/navigator and/or pkgsrc/www/communicator.)
Alternatively, if you have access to an OSF/1 machine and if the licensing details permit, you can copy the contents of:
(The latter is required to run Netscape Navigator or Communicator.)
Also copy
/usr/ccs/lib/cmplrs/otabase/libots.so
Or, simply NFS mount the appropriate directories under
/emul/osf1.