Key Features and Changes for Previous IRIX Releases

The goal of the IRIX 6.5 release family is to provide a high quality and stable operating system for all SGI systems. This release family supports all SGI hardware platforms supported by IRIX 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4, except for Crimson. Significant additional software has been packaged with IRIX 6.5, including some important system and network management and interoperability tools.

The page contains a list of the key features and changes for the IRIX releases from 6.5 through 6.5.13:

IRIX 6.5.x

IRIX 6.5

To see the list of key new features and changes for the IRIX 6.5.14 release, see the Key New Features and Changes page.

For information about the IRIX 6.5 release family, see Supportfolio Online at (http://support.sgi.com) and www.sgi.com.

For details on any of these new features and changes, see the release notes.

Please be aware that some features listed here are only applicable for certain software bundles or hardware configurations.

IRIX 6.5.x Key Features

The following features are in the core 6.5.x overlays.

Hardware Supported from IRIX 6.5.1 through IRIX 6.5.13

Support for the SGI Origin 3000 server series, including the SGI 3200, SGI 3400, and SGI 3800 servers (initially supported in 6.5.9)
Support for the TVO digital video option board for Silicon Graphics Onyx2 systems (initially supported in 6.5.9)
Support initiated for VPro Graphics, the next generation graphics for Octane systems (initially supported in 6.5.8)
Onyx2 InfiniteReality3 systems (initially supported in 6.5.8)
R12KS CPU on sgi2200, sgi2400, and sgi2800 systems (pending overall product release) (initially supported in 6.5.7)
QLA2200 (both copper and optical) is supported for FC-AL, FC-AL via the Emulex hub or Fabric attach via the Brocade Silkworm 2000 switches (initially supported in 6.5.5)
270 Mhz processor for O2 and Silicon Graphics Octane (initially supported in 6.5.4)
HDTV XIO Board for Silicon Graphics Onyx2 and SGI Origin 2000 systems (this includes systems formerly known as Cray Origin2000 systems) (initially supported in 6.5.4)
Systems using the MIPS R12000 processor (initially supported in 6.5.3)
Digital Video Multiplexer option board (DPLEX) for Silicon Graphics Onyx2 systems (initially supported in 6.5.3)
Redundant Power Supply (RPS) (initially supported in 6.5.3)
21" Monitor Support for O2 and Octane (initially supported in 6.5.3)
Flat Panel Monitor for O2 systems (initially supported in 6.5.2)
16 pipe Onyx2 InfiniteReality systems (initially supported in 6.5.2)
GSN network adapter (initially supported in 6.5.2)
Gigabit Ethernet for Octane and SGI Origin systems (initially supported in 6.5.1)
128p Metarouter for Origin 2000 systems (formerly known as Cray Origin2000 systems) (initially supported in 6.5.1)
Dual Channel Display option for O2 systems (initially supported in 6.5.1)
Onyx2 InfiniteReality2 systems (initially supported in 6.5.1)
225QC for SGI Origin 200 (initially supported in 6.5.1)

Software Supported from IRIX 6.5.1 through IRIX 6.5.13

Feature Stream Only:

With 6.5.13, the structure of the CXFS filesystem configuration has been changed. CXFS filesystems can now be defined, modified, managed and deleted independently of each other, and of the cluster definition. (Previously, the CXFS filesystems were defined as attributes to the cluster definition.) To accommodate clusters mixing nodes running 6.5.12 and 6.5.13, backwards compatibility is enforced by default in 6.5.13. For more information, see the CXFS Software Installation and Administration Guide.
The XVM Volume Manager can be used when layered with the CXFS filesystem. The XVM Volume Manager can also be used as a standalone volume manager; this requires that you be running the 6.5.13f release leg of the IRIX operating system. The 6.5.13m leg does not support XVM as a standalone volume manager; this support will be added in a later release. For information on CXFS filesystems, see CXFS Software Installation and Administration Guide.
The 6.5.13 release added support for the use of mirrors in XVM logical volumes. The mirroring feature of XVM requires the XFS Volume Plexing software option. Customers running CXFS and who want to run mirrors will need to purchase this license. XLV customers with plexing licenses can upgrade to XVM without having to acquire a new license.
Supports the labeling of disks as XVM system disks in the XVM Volume Manager. This lets you create XVM logical volumes that include the partitions of a system disk. The following XVM system disk features are supported:
- Root partitions can be mirrored
- There can be multiple root partitions on a system disk
- You can include usr and swap partitions in any XVM logical volume configuration, including mirrors, concats, and stripes
- A system disk can include slices that are not part of a root, usr, or swap partition
You can now convert existing system disks to XVM system disks, and then use their partitions as part of an XVM logical volume. After you have converted an existing system disk to an XVM disk, you can convert the disk back to its original state by unlabeling the disk with the XVM unlabel command. For information on XVM system disks, see the XVM Volume Manager Administrator's Guide. This feature was initially added in 6.5.12.
CXFS supports the use of hierarchical storage management (HSM) products through the data management application programming interface (DMAPI). An example of an HSM product is the SGI DMF product. This feature was initially added in 6.5.9.
Support for the Scheduled Transfer Protocol (STP). STP is a lightweight network protocol that is compliant with the ANSI Standard Revision 3.1 protocol suite that is designed to support extremely high performance data movement. STP uses Direct Memory Access (DMA) to read and write data into user space from a network interface. This lets high bandwidth devices, such as Gigabyte System Network (GSN) and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE), perform at network speeds with minimum interrupt overhead. For more information, see the stp(7P) man page or http://www.hippi.org.) This STP feature was initially added in 6.5.9. In 6.5.6, STP was initially added to the IRIX feature stream with minimal functionality.
Support for disk quotas that can now be set by project ID. Disk quotas let you limit the amount of space a user or project can occupy and the number of files (inodes) that each user or project can own. You can implement hard or soft limits; hard limits are enforced by the system and soft limits only remind the user to decrease disk usage.
For more information on disk quotas and their administration, see IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems, which now includes information about project quota administration. For more information on project IDs, see IRIX Admin: Backup, Security, and Accounting. For more information on the administration of disk quotas by project, see the edquota(1M), find(1M), quota(1M), repquota(1M), and fstab(4) man pages. This feature was initially added in 6.5.9.
Support for the waitjob feature, which includes the new functions setwaitjobpid() and waitjob(). These functions let the batch schedulers query job information following job termination. When a batch scheduler launches a job, it calls setwaitjobpid() to tell the new job what pid is waiting for information upon termination. When the job terminates, it remains as a zombie until either the batch scheduler calls waitjob() to retrieve the job's termination information or the waiting pid no longer exists. The information returned includes the job start time, usage information, and reason for termination.
For more information, see IRIX Admin: Resource Administration and the waitjob(1M) and setwaitjobpid(1M) man pages. This feature was initially added in 6.5.9.
Support for Comprehensive System Accounting (CSA). CSA is a set of user and administrative C programs and shell scripts that provide methods to collect per-process resource usage data, monitor disk usage, and charge fees to specific login accounts. CSA uses this per-process accounting information and combines it by job identifier within the system boot uptime periods. CSA provides the following features that are not available with any other IRIX accounting package:
- Per-job accounting
- Daemon accounting (tape and Network Queuing System (NQS))
- Flexible accounting periods (daily and periodic accounting reports can be generated as often as desired and not restricted to once per day or once per month)
- Flexible system billing units (SBUs)
- User exits for site specific customization of daily and periodic accounting
- Configurable parameters within the /etc/csa.conf file
- User job accounting (ja command)
For more information, see IRIX Admin: Resource Administration and the csa(1M) man page. This feature was initially added in 6.5.8.
Support for the CXFS product, which provides a cluster file system that allows file sharing between machines. CXFS includes the following capabilities:
- High resiliency and availability
- Reduced storage costs
- Scalable high performance
The 6.5.7 release contains metadata server recovery. See the CXFS Software Installation and Administration Guide for the administrative shutdown procedures and additional troubleshooting information. The CXFS feature was initially added in 6.5.6.
Support for job limits. You can use this feature if you want to prevent individual users from exceeding specified usage limits; this can improve system throughput and utilization by restricting how much of the machine each user can access. For more information, see IRIX Admin: Resource Administration and the jstat(1), jlimit(1), genlimits(1M), and showlimits(1) man pages. This feature was initially added in 6.5.7.
Motif 2.1/ViewKit 2.1 (initially added in 6.5.2)
IRIX Oplock Support (initially added in 6.5.2)
Support for Non EUC encoding and locales (sjis/big5/gbk/utf8) (initially added in 6.5.2)

Maintenance and Feature Stream:

The xfsrestore command returns an incorrect exit code when it encounters a media error; improving this process lets a system administrator intelligently react to these conditions.
Improved exit codes for the xfsrestore and xfsdump commands. This lets a system administrator correctly respond to end-of-media or operator interrupt conditions
Changed the mkfs command to allow you to specify the size of an XFS allocation group, as an alternative to specifying the total number of allocation groups. You use the -d agsize= option for this. For information, see the mkfs_xfs man page and IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems.
Changed the mkfs command to allow you to specify the size of a stripe unit and the size of a stripe width in bytes or in filesystem blocks, as an alternative to specifying these values in 512-byte block units. You use the -d su= and the -d sw= options for this. For information, see the mkfs_xfs man page and IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems.
Changed the default size of an XFS allocation group; larger filesystems will result in larger default allocation group sizes.
The xfsdump and xfsrestore commands will provide the VSN of the tape that reached its end-of-volume (or the VSN of a new tape that needs to be mounted) and pass this VSN to the media_change_alert_program specified with the -c option. This lets system administrators send commands to a tape jukebox to mount the next tape.
Changed the default size of an XFS log. The default log size grows with the size of the filesystem up to the maximum log size, 128 megabytes, on a 1 terabyte filesystem. For information on the default values of XFS allocation groups and XFS log sizes, see IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems.
Added cpusetAttachPID() and cpusetDetachPID() functions to the Cpuset System library. The cpusetAttachPID() function allows a programmer to attach a currently running program to an existing cpuset. The cpusetDetachPID() function allows a programmer to detach a currently running program to an existing cpuset. Any programmer that uses the cpuset API from Irix 6.5.13, and later, can use these functions. For information, see chapter 4, "Cpuset System", in the IRIX Admin: Resource Administration manual and the cpusetAttachPID(3x)and cpusetDetachPID(3x) man pages.
The following features have been moved from Enhanced DHCP to standard DHCP:
- Ping check before an address is leased to insure it is not already in use
- MAC address filtering; clients whose MAC address is listed in a file will be unable to obtain a lease and/or accesses from these clients will be logged.
  For more information, see the dhcp_bootp man page.
Added implementation of End Sequence to Scheduled Transfer Protocol. The upper layer protocol or applications can now terminate a transfer and restart another one without taking down virtual connection.
VPro for Octane/OpenGL performance improvements have been added as follows:
- Improved X window performance by 25 percent based on x11perf
- Iproved performance of OpenGL glCopypixel() function
The following new system controller features have been implemented for the SGI Origin 3000 server series:
- Enabled router port security, which prevents unauthorized enabling of additional router ports on router bricks in the SGI Origin/Onyx 3400 server series
- Enabled system serial number security, which prevents unauthorized changes to the system serial number
- Completely redesigned the graphical interface for the front-panel display of the SGI 3400 and 3800 servers
Added hotplug attach feature that allows Gigabit Ethernet cards to be installed on a running system. A system administrator can use the pciconfig command to add cards to an Origin 3000 system and the ifconfig command to configure the cards for networking. For more information, see the pciconfig and ifconfig man pages.
Added Origin 3000 system partitioning support in the eoe.sw.partition software package. This feature improves how system partitioning software is installed, enabled, and disabled. It also eliminates the need to manually edit configuration files.
Efficiency improvements have been made to the BTE driver layer to reduce both latency and contention. This feature is a performance improvement to the existing functionality that is used internally by the system.
The tools that report CPU utilization have been modified to correct the sampling of %WIO to omit idle time in line with industry standards. See the sar(1) man page for details.
Updated FLEXlm v7.2f support from GLOBEtrotter Software, Inc. The license manager daemon and the floating license server are built in V5 compatibility mode. For backwards compatibility, the client libraries and header files are still based on FLEXlm v6.1g. For more information, see the FLEXlm End User Manual and the associated man pages.
OpenGL Performer 2.4.1 execution environment, which is a powerful suite of tools and features that creates real-time visual simulation and other professional performance-oriented 3D graphics applications for the IRIX operating system. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.12. The following new features for OpenGL Performer provide enhanced realism and peak-performance rendering:
- Programmable model shading using pfShader
- Use of pfVolFog for rendering layered and patchy fog
- Use of pfRotorWash to create the visual effect of downwash in helicopter simulation
- Double-precision matrix support for rendering extremely large databases where objects are far away from the origin
- CPU priority specification to allow multiple run-time processes to run on the same processor
- Multi-pipe scalability enhancements
- Improved pfLOD behavior to allow custom evaluation functions
- Speed and functionality enhancements for pfFlux, pfCliptexture, and pfLightpoints
- pfHyperpipe support for the DPLEX hardware option
- EventView performance tuning tool for instrumenting and tuning your OpenGL Performer application
The IRIX tape-support feature consists of a tape support driver, personality daemons, and a daemon that manages the personality daemons. The feature enables new personality daemons to be developed and added individually. The tape-support driver, which co-exists with the current IRIX tape driver (tpsc), passes all device-dependent tasks, except for I/O processing, to a personality daemon. This release supports various devices including the Fibre Channel implementation on the StorageTek 9840 and T9940A tape drives. The reserve, release, preempt, clear, and prsv commands are available for these tape drives on the mt command. For more information, see the mt(1), tsarchive(1M), tsdaemon(1M), tserrpt(1M), tsset(1M), tsstop(1M), ts.config(4), and ts(7) man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.12.
Updated FLEXlm v7.2e support from GLOBEtrotter Software, Inc. The license manager daemon and the floating license server are built in V5 compatibility mode. For backwards compatibility, the client libraries and header files are still based on FLEXlm v6.1. For more information, see the FLEXlm End User Manual and the associated man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.12.
The Scheduled Transfer Protocol (STP) has moved from the feature stream to the maintenance and feature stream. STP is now a mature supported protocol and it includes TRIX support. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.12.
Support for the use of a reserved area of memory; this reserved area is between virtual addresses 0x30000000 and 0x40000000. This feature disables the reserved area of memory that the kernel provides for applications to place their mmap and shmat mappings. For more information, see the mmap(2), shmat(2), syssgi(2), and sgi_use_anyaddr(1) man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.11.
Support for weightless pthreads; they allow you to lower the priority of a process by using the npri -w command. For more information, see the npri(1) man page. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.11.
Support for upgrading license_eoe to the FLEXlm 7.1 release from Globetrotter Software, Inc. The license manager daemon will be built in V5 compatibility mode. For more information, see the FLEXlm End User Manual and the associated man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.11.
Support for an increased maximum number of logical unit numbers (LUNs) in the SCSI infrastructure from 64 to 255. This change impacts only the fcadp and qlfc fibre channel drivers and they will now enforce this LUN limit. If a LUN is greater than 255, it will be ignored after issuing a message to this effect. If you use large numbers of LUNs, you can exhaust the hardware graph. You may need to use the systune command to increase the hwgraph_num_dev parameter to let the kernel build larger hardware graphs. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.11.
Support for licensing of partitioned environments. The SGI Origin 3000 server series and SGI Onyx 3000 series of systems give you the flexibility to distribute and manage a partitioned system environment on a large CPU server system. In most cases, software licensing behaves in the same manner on a single system image as in a partitioned environment. However, there are some differences. Depending on your applications, you may need either systemwide or per-CPU licensing. For more information, see IRIX Admin: Software Installation and Licensing. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.11.
Support for the PCI Hot Plug infrastructure on the SGI 3200, SGI 3400, and SGI 3800 servers. The Hot Plug feature consists of the Hot Insertion and Hot Removal actions. Each device driver must be qualified as supporting one or both of these actions. Currently, the QLogic fibre channel and QLogic SCSI device drivers are qualified for Hot Insertion. For more information on specific administrative options, see the pciconfig(1) man page. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.11.
Support for point-to-point connections between the QLogic 2200 fibre channel controller and the Brocade switch. This type of connection lets the QLogic 2200 controller perform full duplex transfers with the switch offering a potential increase in bandwidth. This capability was enabled by changing the value assigned to the qlfc_use_connection_mode variable (in /var/sysgen/master.d/qlfc) to 2. The previous value was 0. This change does not impact loop operation. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.10.
Support for the IRIX SCSI tape driver (tpsc) enhancements that let system administrators and privileged applications specify a persistent reservation on shared tape drives. After the reservation has been established, the shared tape drive cannot be accessed by another host until the reservation has been released. For more information, see the mt(1) and mtio(7M) man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.10.
Support for the new Fortran, C++, and base compiler runtime libraries packaged under the ftn_eoe, c++_eoe and compiler_eoe overlay images. These libraries are based on the MIPSpro 7.3.1.2m compilers and contain new interfaces released under the MIPSpro 7.3 compilers. The libraries are backward compatible with the libraries that were released in previous versions of IRIX 6.5. For more information, see the ftn_eoe, c++_eoe, and compiler_eoe release notes. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.10.
Support for Embedded Support Partner 2.0 (ESP2.0). This release supercedes patch 3895 and includes the major features as follows:
- Automatic Call Logging to the SGI call centers for Mission Critical Supported customers
- Support of event profiles for monitoring
- A new command line interface to setup and use ESP
- A new user interface with a high level of usability and navigational features
- Fixes to the System Group Manager for secure interconnectivity between group members and the group manager
- Support for an unlimited number of group members to the System Group Manager
- Multiple ESP user support with page privileges
- ESP logbook for electronically logging and tracking support activities locally on the system
The migration from ESP1.0 to ESP2.0 is done seamlessly when upgrading from previous versions of IRIX to IRIX 6.5.9. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.9.

The Embedded Support Partner Overview and the Embedded Support Partner User Guide have been combined. The new document is called the Embedded Support Partner User Guide and will contain overview and usage information for the ESP 2.0 command line and graphical user interfaces.
Support for the SCSI Enclosure Services (SES). A new subsystem that manages the Fibre Channel drive enclosures has been added. The new daemon, sesdaemon, supports the Xyratex 12-slot enclosure and the Clarion 10-slot enclosure. The new client application, sesmgr, uses a command set similar to the set used by the previous fcagent/fccli subsystem. For more information, see the sesdaemon(1M) and sesmgr(1M) man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.9.
Support for 32-bit direct mapping to any node on the system. This feature lets the system administrator change the 32-bit direct mapping node for a specific Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. It also provides a new interface, pcibr_get_dmatrans_node(), that lets a device driver obtain the node ID. For more information, see the IRIX Device Driver Programmer's Guide and the pcibr_get_dmatrans_node(D3) man page. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.8.
Support for the cpuset programming interface (previously known as miser_cpuset). This interface is provided in the form of a Dynamic Shared Object (DSO). You can use this programming interface to create cpusets, remove cpusets, and attach processes to cpusets. You can use the cpuset programming interface in areas where the cpuset command is inappropriate. For example, if a batch system needs to use the cpuset capability in IRIX, the programming interface will provide a more flexible and robust solution than the cpuset command. For more information, see IRIX Admin: Resource Administration and the cpuset(5), cpusetAllocQueueDef(3x), cpusetAttach(3x), cpusetCreate(3x), cpusetDestroy(3x), cpusetDetachAll(3x), cpusetFreeCPUList(3x), cpusetFreeNameList(3x), cpusetFreePIDList(3x), cpusetGetCPUCount(3x), cpusetGetCPUList(3x), cpusetGetName(3x), cpusetGetNameList(3x), and cpusetGetPIDList(3x) man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.8.
Support for new Miser cpuset options. These options allow the creation of restrictive memory pools from the nodes that contain the CPUs listed in the configuration file. Processes that exceed the available memory on those nodes may be terminated or paged (selectable). For more information on these options, see the cpuset(4) man page. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.8.
Support for the IRIX sendmail mail system based on sendmail version 8.9.3 (see http://www.sendmail.org) Some of the new functions in version 8.9.3 are as follows:
- The major difference between sendmail versions 8.8.8 and 8.9.3 is their configuration file. The configuration file in sendmail version 8.9.3 is configured with the sendmail.mc file which is processed with the m4 macro processor to create the sendmail.cf file.
- A new version of configmail configures the sendmail.mc file and provides features similar to the configmail utility in previous versions of IRIX. This version of configmail also processes the sendmail.mc file into sendmail.cf by using the m4 macro processor.
- Sendmail 8.9.3 includes many new features requested by IRIX users, such as anti-relay features which can be used to control spam messages.
For more information on the 8.9.3 version of sendmail, see the IRIX Administration: Networking and Mail manual. For more information on how to configure sendmail, see http://www.sendmail.org/m4/readme.html. The sendmail feature was initially added to the IRIX 6.5.7 release.
Integration of the fsr_xfs(1M) command into the fsr(1M) command. With previous releases of IRIX, the fsr command could be run only on EFS filesystems and the fsr_xfs command could be run only on XFS filesystems. Both commands reorganize filesystems so that the layout of the extents is improved. This improves the performance of mounted filesystems that have become fragmented over time. With this release, the fsr command invokes fsr_xfs when it encounters XFS filesystems. With this change, the default crontab(1M) entry that calls fsr, also reorganizes XFS filesystems. For information on the fsr command and the fsr_xfs and fsr_efs options, see the fsr(1M), fsr_xfs(1M), and fsr_efs(1M) man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.7.
Support for the -u option of the sat_interpret utility that writes unbuffered output. You can use this new option if you are using the sat_interpret utility to process system audit trail data, and then you can pipe this output to another filter utility. For more information, see the sat_interpret(1M) man page. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.7.
Support for bzero error recovery; this RAS feature prevents the kernel from panicking when a memory Multiple Bit Error (MBE) is encountered while the kernel is zeroing out a new page in the virtual memory fault handler (vfault). The kernel will now discard the page with the memory error, grab a new page, and continue its task. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.7.
Support for the 66 MHz QLogic 2200 controller. This feature provides fibre channel disk connectivity for the O2 systems, for both arbitrated loops and Storage Area Networks (SANs). This capability already exists on the SGI Origin systems. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.7.
Support for the FC-Tape on a Storage Area Network (fabric) using the QLogic 2200 fibre channel controller to the tpsc driver. This feature lets you attach tape drives with the fibre channel interface to the fibre channel switch and use these tape drives. For more information on the fibre channel tapes, see the tps(7M) man page. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.7.
Support for a multithreaded version of the automatic filesystem mount daemon autofsd. This enhanced functionality allows for simultaneous multiple automounts. If a particular server for an automounted filesystem is not running or is slow to respond, one autofsd thread can wait for that server while other autofsd threads mount filesystems from other servers. This capability improves the automount performance and simultaneously provides longer wait times for downed servers, which should lead to a decrease in automount failures. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.6.
Embedded Support Partner, which is an integral part of the IRIX operating system, provides system administrators with a way to monitor various events (such as system events, changes in system hardware and software configuration, and system performance) that can occur on their system. Embedded Support Partner consists of a set of daemons that perform the monitoring activities. These include an event monitoring daemon (eventmond), an event management daemon (espemd), and a database daemon (espdbd). Embedded Support Partner provides single system monitoring capabilities as a standard part of IRIX. Optionally, Embedded Support Partner can be configured to receive event and system configuration data from all systems contained within a system group. Embedded Support Partner is controlled through a Web browser that is connected to the Configurable Web Server that is included in the Embedded Support Partner package. For more information, see the Embedded Support Partner Overview, the Embedded Support Partner User's Guide, and the Embedded Support Partner man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.5.
Support for the version 2 XFS directory format; this format provides you with the capability to choose a filesystem block size to match the distribution of data file sizes without adversely affecting directory operation performance. The directory format is specified with the -n parameter of the mkfs command. For more information, see the IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems and the mkfs_xfs(1M) man page. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.5.
SCSL is widely used in scientific and technical compute intensive applications and is intended to be a follow on product to Challengecomplib on all supported IRIX platforms at the next major IRIX release. Features such as convolution/correlation and filter routines to the Signal Processing functionality previously only available in Challengecomplib are now incorporated into the SCSL version 1.2 release. Additional IRIX features added to SCSL for this release are improved ordering techniques for the sparse linear solvers, performance enhancements for the MIPS R12000 processor, rollup bug fixes from SCSL 1.1, and all other Challengecomplib 3.1 functionality. SCSL can be downloaded free of charge from the Download Cool Software page at http://www.sgi.com/Products/Evaluation/. For customers who do not have web access and are enrolled under a valid support contract, CD media can be requested free of charge from their local support center. Non-contract customers can order SCSL from their local sales representative. For more information on SCSL, see http://www.sgi.com/software/scsl.html. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.5.
Support for Automated Performance Monitoring. Together with Embedded Support Partner, the base performance monitoring services in the pcp_eoe product have been extended to include an inference engine for evaluating rules about system-level performance and raising alarms. Also provided is a parameterized set of standard rules that can be selectively enabled and tuned to meet local requirements and to choose alternative alarm notification mechanisms. These features are of most value to operations staff running production IRIX systems. For more information, see the pmie(1) and pmieconf(1) man pages, and the Performance Co-Pilot(TM) IRIX Base Software Administrator's Guide. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.5.
Two new options were added to the "miser_create_cpuset" command. These options allow additional restrictions on memory assignment for processes running on a cpuset. These options are documented in the miser_cpuset(4) man pages. This feature was initially added in IRIX 6.5.5.
Support for SAN addressing (initially added in IRIX 6.5.5)
Support for the Miser queue repack policy. When a job finishes execution prior to the end of its schedule, the system resources it was using are released. This policy attempts to reschedule the jobs using earlier start and end times in order to take advantage of these released system resources. The order of the scheduled jobs will be maintained. This feature can be used by all Miser users running IRIX 6.5.4m or f. For more information, see the miser(4) and miser(5) man pages, and the IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Operation, Chapter 7 "Managing User Processes." (initially added in IRIX 6.5.4)
Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) Client for accessing shared resources in distributed computing DCE/DFS serving environments (initially added in IRIX 6.5.4)
- Kernel libraries only
- As of IRIX 6.5.8 and later, DCE/DFS 1.2.2b software is required for full functionality
(Octane systems only) The worst-case interrupt response time is guaranteed to be less than one millisecond on properly configured Octane systems (initially added in IRIX 6.5.3)
Support for the X security and appgroup extensions (combined with a new Netscape plugin, these allow the embedding of X applications in Web pages) (initially added in IRIX 6.5.3)
Extra support for European fonts, including the new Euro currency symbol (initially added in IRIX 6.5.3)
New Software Manager and Inst commands to simplify selections for upgrades (initially added in IRIX 6.5.3)
New Software Manager and Inst configuration variable to more easily handle cases where configuration files are upgraded. See the "smart_config_handling" preference in inst or swmgr for more information (initially added in IRIX 6.5.4)
LDAP 3.0 now supported (initially added in IRIX 6.5.3)
AutoFS extended to use UNS for map information (initially added in IRIX 6.5.2)
Support for DCShare application sharing extension (initially added in IRIX 6.5.2)
Fibre channel support to Dmnet (initially added in IRIX 6.5.2)
Three new HP printer drivers (initially added in IRIX 6.5.2)

Applications CD:

The following products were updated with bug fixes only:
- SGI Web Server, based on the Apache 1.3.20
  For details on how to change your default web server and configure and administer the SGI Web Server, see Caveats to Read After You Upgrade.
- IRIX Interactive Desktop System Administration
- Information Searching Execution Environment
- InSight Online Doc Viewer 4.4
- Netscape Communicator 4.77
  By default, version 4.77 will install the new N32 version of the browser. Any existing third-party plugins for the browser that are O32 will no longer function. Support for the Macromedia Flash plugin is also included. For more information, see http://browsers.netscape.com/browsers/main.tmpl
The following products contain enhancements or new features:
- WebSetup 3.3 has been updated to support the SGI web server based on Apache 1.3.20 and an administration GUI has been added.
- Impressario 2.9.5 to supports a new HP6300 Scanner driver and an Epson PPD bug fix.
SGI web server, based on the Apache web server version 1.3.17, replaces the Netscape FastTrack web server; for details on how to change your default web server and configure and administer the SGI web server, see Caveats to Read After You Upgrade. (Initially added in IRIX 6.5.12)
WebSetup 3.2 has been updated to support the SGI web server based on Apache (initially added in IRIX 6.5.12)
NEdit version 5.1.1a has added extensions to the regular expression syntax, an improved international character set input, new macro subroutines, and improved syntax highlighting for several programming languages (initially added in IRIX 6.5.12)
Runtime Plug-in for IRIX, Java(TM) Edition 1.1.1b has added support for the Netscape N32 plugin and the O32 plugin (initially added in IRIX 6.5.12)
The following products from the Isogon Corporation have been removed: LicensePower/iFOR IS4.0.1 ARK and LicensePower/iFOR IS4.0.1 CRK. Sales and support has been divested to the Isogon Corporation at http://www.isogon.com. For more information on support modes, see the Support Policy page at http://www.support.sgi.com/news/support/index.html#support_policy. (Initially added in IRIX 6.5.12)
Impressario 2.8.5 supports two new HP printer drivers, HP4050 and HP8100 (initially added in IRIX 6.5.12)
NEdit version 5.1.1 has added extensions to the regular expression syntax, an improved international character set input, new macro subroutines, and improved syntax highlighting for several programming languages.
Cosmo Player 2.1.5 release has added support for the Netscape N32 plugin
CustomerLink Client Software will no longer be supported. Its key features have been migrated to the SupportFolio Online site (http://support.sgi.com).
Customer Support Services Base Software will no longer be supported. Its key features have been migrated to the SupportFolio Online site (http://support.sgi.com).
Impressario 2.6.5 has added 1000 new PPD files to the /usr/spool/lp/PPD_untested/ directory. The README file in this directory contains details on how to use the new drivers. The new PPD files include printers from the following manufacturers:
- 3M
- Adobe
- Agfa
- Apple
- Autologic
- Canon
- Dataproducts
- Epson
- FujiPhotoFilm
- Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd.
- Hewlett-Packard
- IBM
- Kodak
- Konica
- Linotype
- MGI
- Mitsubishi
- OKI
- Optronics
- PrePress
- QMS
- Ricoh
- Samsung
- Scitex
- Shinko
- Sony
- Splash
- Topmax
- Tektronix
- Xante
- Xerox
Netscape Communicator 4.76; by default, version 4.76 will install the new N32 version of the browser. Any existing third-party plugins for the browser that are O32 will no longer function. Support for the Macromedia Flash plugin is also included. For more information, see http://home.netscape.com/communicator/v4.5/tour/index.html
Netscape FastTrack Server 3.03 contains an updated version of the Administration Server 3.52 (initially added in 6.5.5)
NetWare Client 1.1.1 has added support for IP35
Runtime Plug-in for IRIX, Java(TM) Edition 1.1.1a has added support for the Netscape N32 plugin
SGImeeting Collaboration Environment with Extensions, 2.0, Net-based data-conferencing, application-sharing software. A 30-day evaluation license is included. The following enhancements are supported:
- Enhanced NetMeeting 3.0 interoperability - enables offline selection of compatibility for sharing applications supported by NetMeeting 3.0. For more information, see the SGImeeting Help and User's Guide.
- Speed dialing - enables creation of .cnf files and initiates calls from the command line
- Background operation - provides selections for SGImeeting to minimize, remain actively connected in the background, and pop up when you receive a call
- Grouped window sharing - enables selecting all windows with a specific X class name to be treated as a single application and shared as a group
- Response time performance improvement - redraws during application sharing are faster among other functional activities
The SGImeeting Extensions also offer additional whiteboard tools as "plugins" that appear on the whiteboard tool palette. These tools are ideal for group discussions in CAD and image intensive industries. The following extensions are available:
- A screen capture tool for dynamic or still whiteboard input
- A video capture tool for dynamic or still whiteboard input
- Customizable arrows and dimension markers for easy discussion pointing
- Symbol palette for drag and drop images
- SmartClear for clearing annotations when captured images update
For more information on SGImeeting, see http://www.sgi.com/software/sgimeeting. For additional assistance, contact your local SGI sales representative.
WebViewer Library Execution only Environment 3.0 release (initially added in 6.5.5)
Xinet Macintosh Connectivity Software, also referred to as Xinet Appletalk, now includes K-AShare, K-FS, and K-Spool software. These products provide enhancements for Macintosh file sharing, file serving, and printing connectivity with IRIX systems. These Xinet products were updated to version 10.02 in the IRIX 6.5.9 release. Version 10.02 is only the demonstration version; no license is included. Any licenses from previous versions of Xinet software will not work with version 10.02. For more information on Xinet products, see http://www.xinet.com. For technical or sales questions, please contact Xinet at sales@xinet.com or 1.510.845.0555.

IRIX OS Bundled Software:

Removed Out of Box Experience (OOBE) CD
Removed Hot Mix CD

For more information about the bundled software that is included with this release, see CD Contents and the Bundled Software and Licenses web page that you can access from the Welcome web page.

Freeware CD:

Security-related bug fixes or updates have been made to analog, bind, htdig, nmh, and openssh (initially added in IRIX 6.5.12)
Several new packages have been added to the archives, including cpio, licq, and vnc (initially added in IRIX 6.5.12)
Many packages have been updated or patched, including ddd, gdb, gimp, nedit, postgresql, and other GNOME 1.2 related packages (initially added in IRIX 6.5.12)

For more information about the freeware that is included with this release, including a complete list of the freeware packages, see http://freeware.sgi.com/ .

Documentation

IRIX Environment Variables Ready Reference, part number 007-3942-001. This publication describes the environment variables that are used on IRIX operating systems, in the compiling environment, and in other applications that run on IRIX operating systems (such as SpeedShop). This was initially added in IRIX 6.5.12.
The CXFS Software Installation and Administration Guide (part number 007-4016-008) was rewritten to include more troubleshooting information. This was initially added in IRIX 6.5.12.

IRIX 6.5 Key Features

IRIX 6.5 feature categories:

Binary Compatibility

Desktop

Digital Media

Documentation Content and Delivery

Origin Enterprise System Management

Origin Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS),

Origin Scalability

PC & Macintosh Interoperability

PCI

Personal System Management

Scheduling

Security

Software Distribution

Standards

Workgroup System Management

X11/Motif

Includes both a 32-bit and a 64-bit runtime environment. Systems that use the 64-bit runtime environment support both 32-bit and 64-bit applications; systems that use the 32-bit runtime environment, such as the O2, will only support 32-bit applications.

Systems that support a 32-bit runtime environment with 64-bit extensions*:

Indigo R4000
Indigo2
Indy
Challenge S/M R4000
Indy/Challenge
O2
O2 R10000

*64-bit extensions include support for
XFS filesystem and 64-bit long integers,
excluding 64-bit address spaces.

Systems that support a 64-bit runtime environment:

Challenge R4000
Onyx R4000
Power Indigo2
Power Challenge
Power Onyx
Indigo2 Extreme 10000
Indigo2 Impact 10000
Origin 200
Origin 2000
Origin 300
Origin 3000
Onyx 3000
Onyx2
Octane
Octane2