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Date:      Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:31:21 +0930 (CST)
From:      Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
To:        jdp@polstra.com (John Polstra)
Cc:        terry@lambert.org, msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: pccard and -current; a long way to go. :-(
Message-ID:  <199707300901.SAA21195@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
In-Reply-To: <199707300412.VAA07616@austin.polstra.com> from John Polstra at "Jul 29, 97 09:12:58 pm"

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John Polstra stands accused of saying:
> * Solve the booting problem.  My hacked-up bootloader was within
> about 6 bytes of the maximum size -- way too big to commit.  GRUB?
> An a.out wrapper for the ELF kernel?

Someone (please) help me get a standalone executable running?
ie. like the boot3 code Bill posted last year?

> * Design a directory structure for the toolchain components so that
> it's reasonable to have both a.out and ELF tools installed at the
> same time.

Toolchain :

/usr/libexec/<cpu>-<format>

So we might have :

/usr/libexec/i386-aout/*
/usr/libexec/i386-elf/*
/usr/libexec/alpha-elf/*

Libraries :

/usr/lib-<cpu>-<format>

and a symlink /usr/lib -> the default for the running platform.

eg :

/usr/lib-i386-aout
/usr/lib-i386-elf
/usr/lib-alpha-elf

> * Work out a build structure that will allow an a.out->ELF make
> world.

I presume it's possible to build the ELF toolchain as a.out
executables?  I'd hope that we could handle all the host/target
combinations, actually.  The above structure doesn't allow for sharing
/usr between different architectures; that would seem silly given that
the contents of bin and libexec wouldn't work.

Can you answer me an ignorant question and explain how many things
have to change in the gcc makefile to swap between generating a.out
and ELF?

> * Consider the feasibility of mixed linking combining both ELF and
> a.out object modules and libraries.  Likewise for dynamic linking.
> Some people have a.out libraries and executables which they paid
> money for.  They don't want to throw them away.  Again, the
> underscore problem is an obstacle here.

Is this critical?  Can't the people with a.out libraries/executables
continue to use a.out tools?

-- 
]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer        msmith@gsoft.com.au             [[
]] Genesis Software                     genesis@gsoft.com.au            [[
]] High-speed data acquisition and      (GSM mobile)     0411-222-496   [[
]] realtime instrument control.         (ph)          +61-8-8267-3493   [[
]] Unix hardware collector.             "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick  [[



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