On Tue, Sep 03, 2002 at 11:32:22PM +0100, Richard Tobin wrote:
> > > False. As I said, I have systems that read a.out format object files
> > > and they would need to be ported to read ELF object files instead.
>
> > > Furthermore, they write themselves out (after loading object files) in
> > > a.out format, and would need to be ported to write themselves out
> > > in ELF format.
>
> > Where exactly does GCC fit into the mix, making this impossible?
>
> They compile Lisp (etc) to a C file, which they compile (with gcc) to
^^^
actually with as(1), because gcc is only generates assembler file,
which is then translated into the object file by assembler (as).
Assembler by itself is part of binutils, not a compiler suite.
-Maxim
> a .o file, then link against the running image (with
> /usr/libexec/aout/ld -A) to produce a relocated .o file, then read it
> in and look at its symbol table to find the entry points.
>
> So they need a C compiler that can generate a.out format .o files, and
> a linker that can link a.out format .o files against an a.out format
> executable.
>
> I'm quite expecting the answer "yes, we've considered this and decided
> that the overhead of supporting it is to much", but I want to make
> sure that you realise that there are programs that will break.
> Long-time BSD users will not be surprised to know that Franz Lisp (the
> original BSD Franz Lisp, not the commercial Franz Inc product) is one
> of them.
>
> Incidentally, I know that the "modern" alternative to reading in .o
> files is to use shared libraries instead, but as far as I know there
> isn't any support for writing out an executable that has shared
> libraries mapped in (so that they don't have to be loaded, or even
> exist, when the program is started again).
>
> -- Richard
>
>
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