Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 08:25:31 +1030 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: terry@lambert.org (Terry Lambert) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, swallace@ece.uci.edu, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: linux ELF codine no go on 2.2 Gamma Message-ID: <199702112155.IAA07388@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <199702112004.NAA28867@phaeton.artisoft.com> from Terry Lambert at "Feb 11, 97 01:04:05 pm"
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> The "loaded from" hints cruft is really, really unnecessary. If > you have a problem, get the people causing it to use fixed tools. In an ideal world, this would be nice. Reality ain't quite like that though; there are, and will continute to be for some time, commercial ELF binaries out there that _aren't_ branded, and in some cases branding them is impractical (there are lots of them scattered around inside a product) or impossible (the product resists tampering by employing a self-validation process). Using the path of an executable won't _hurt_ anything, and in the case of stuff that's installed under the 'compat' tree will just magically DTRT. > Wasn't one of the reasons FreeBSD cited for not moving to ELF the > idea that the tools had not settled? If you are willing to patch > unsettled tools in software this way, you have removed the reason > for not moving to ELF... and you should move to ELF first, before > hacking in cruft to support your "premature" move to ELF (quoted, > since all FreeBSD ELF binaries, of which there are none, could be > created with the patched tools, *only*, and never have the problem > you are trying to glue). This has _nothing_ to do with the problem I am trying to address, which is strictly one of getting other peoples' unbranded-out-of-the-box ELF binaries to work with a minimum of nonstandard screwing around on the part of the user. If/when ABI branding of ELF binaries is common, the code can come right back out, and believe me none will be happier than I to see it go. > Terry Lambert -- ]] 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 [[
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199702112155.IAA07388>