DOCUMENT ID:  1541-02

SYSOPSIS:     Data transfer between Sparc and x86 systems

OS RELEASE:   2.x

PRODUCT:      Solaris x86

KEYWORDS:     data transfer sparc x86


DESCRIPTION:

Binaries:
---------
The Sparc and x86 platforms are NOT binary compatible.  You cannot run
Sparc executables on an x86 system, and you cannot run x86 executables
on a Sparc system. 

Any binaries you execute must be compiled for the platform they will be
run on. 


Backups:
--------
Back up tapes of data files may or may not be compatible between
Sparc/x86.  This depends on the method used to make the back up. 

The x86 processor is a little endian CPU (the 4 bytes of a word are
allocated in memory from low to high) while Sparc is a big endian
processor (the 4 bytes of a word are allocated in the reverse order,
high to low).  This difference means that data will only transfer
properly between the 2 platforms when using a byte-ordering independent
protocol. 

Tar, cpio -- Yes, compatible between Sparc/x86 ufsdump 

ufsrestore -- No, not compatible between Sparc/x86

Although tar and cpio can be used to transfer data between Sparc and x86
platforms, the files that have been moved will still be suject to
"endian-disorder", i.e.  they will retain their byte-ordering scheme
which will not be consistent with their new platform. 


Sharing Data Files:
-------------------
If you are writing a program that reads and writes data files and you
would like to share data files between Sparc and x86, you will want to
use the XDR libraries to read and write the data files.  See man xdr for
more information on XDR. 


DATE APPROVED: 10/18/95