Eunice (software)

Eunice
Original author(s)David Kashtan
Developer(s)SRI International,
The Wollongong Group
Operating systemDEC VAX/VMS
PlatformVAX computers
TypeCompatibility layer
LicenseProprietary commercial software

Eunice was a Unix-like working environment for VAX computers running DEC's VAX/VMS, based on the BSD version of Unix. It was originally developed ca. 1981 by David Kashtan at SRI,[1] and later maintained and marketed by The Wollongong Group.[2]

Eunice was one of several Unix compatibility packages developed during the 1980s. It provided VMS binary versions of Unix tools, a VMS object library emulating the Unix API (including the system call interface) and an assembler that produced VMS binaries.[3] Eunice was criticized for its performance problems and not quite complete Unix compatibility.[1] Eunice's reputation for poor compatibility inspired the "Congratulations. You aren't running Eunice." message included in the Perl configure script.[4][5]

  1. ^ a b Caplinger, Michael (1987). ϕnix: a Unix emulator for VAX/VMS (Technical report). Rice University. hdl:1911/101549. MASC TR82-8.
  2. ^ "The Wollongong Group upgrades its Eunice Unixalike operating system". Computer Business Review. 19 July 1988.
  3. ^ "Kermit Software Source Code Archive". www.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
  4. ^ Packard, Keith (2020-01-16). A Political History of X. LCA 2020.
  5. ^ Perl Configure script on GitHub