> Will the a.out format for executables disappear altogether from the
> kernel sometime in the future? I'm concerned since some people do not
> have the time, disk space, net bandwidth, etc. to upgrade to ELF. As
> you might guess, yours truly is one of these. Additionally, I feel
> (about my machines only!) if it ain't broke why fix it?
The a.out format will probably disappear in the future. How far in the
future probably can not be determined. It will take a rather long time
for it to die however.
The current development for the libraries for Linux has already
stopped for the a.out format. The new libraries are ELF only. You can
still build an a.out library if you hack the library itself to do
it. However, don't expect the GCC group to support your a.out shared
library format.
The current compilers for Linux will probably stop being a.out in the
future at some time.
The usually phasing out of a feature is that the feature first becomes
optional with the default to "include" the feature. This has been done
with the current 1.3 series kernels.
It is then followed by including the feature with the default being "no".
It is then followed by not including support for the feature. However,
in the case of a.out, it will probably remain in the kernel for a long
time until Linus finally gets tired of carrying around the source
file. What will probably happen is that people will forget to update
the loader should the requirements for the operating system tables
change. This means that the programs which are loaded by the a.out
loader wont run.
That final step is when the a.out support will actually vanish from
the kernel. Don't expect that to happen until most everyone is
comfortable with the ELF support.
It most certainly wont happen tomorrow or even next week.
> However, upgrading the kernel is one activity which I do perform on a
> regular basis -- bug fixes, speed enhancements, security enhancements,
> more features. Hence this mail can also be construed as a request to
> the Powers That Be to consider keeping a.out in the kernel as a config
> option, at the very least.
I doubt that the a.out will simply be yanked from the kernel. It will
probably just fall into disuse.
The first step was to make it a configured option. I am happy that Rolf
did that.
Where the current concept of patching the kernel broke down was that
if you did not bother to run 'make distclean config' then you did not
end up with a.out support. There was no way to insert a default that
"this option should default to YES" when the missing option (from your
previous config run) means that the option was "NO".
-- Al Longyear longyear@netcom.com longyear@sii.com Finger longyear@netcom.com for PGP public key.