Re: Pentium emulation

Kevin M. Bealer (kmb203@psu.edu)
Sat, 26 Jul 1997 23:12:47 -0400

linux kernel account wrote:
>
>Hmm.. Even better, is there any possibility of making linux support
>FAT-Elfs? On my NeXT computer I can compile as a 'fat binary' and have the
>same executible run on M68k, Intel, Sparc, and HP.. On the target
>computers I can then strip the fat bin to just whats nessassary.. Or the
>installer can do that... Anyone who maintains a multi platform enviroment
>can tell you how helpful that is.. Wouldn't it be nice to have in linux..
>
(clip)

I think this should be "fairly easy to do". If ld.so was modified to
look for an "ELF" section named "sparc.text" or "i386.text" instead of
"text" and likewise for the other (arch dependant) ELF subobjects.

In the PPro case: look for "PPro.text" then "i586.text", then
"i486.text", "i386.text" and finally "text".

You would need to use a tool to strip the binary, but I don't see any
other nasty ramifications.

As far as I can see, you don't even need kernel support. You would
need to modify "ld.so" and you would need to link them differently
during the compilation. The real problem comes when you want to
distribute software -- anyone who makes these fat binaries needs to
have access to lots of different architectures.

--kmb203@psu.edu----------------Debian/GNU--1.3---Linux--2.0.30---
Probable-Possible, my black hen,
She lays eggs in the Relative When.
She doesn't lay eggs in the Positive Now
Because she's unable to postulate how.
-- Frederick Winsor