> The personality system call would only set the *initial*
> value of the FPU control word before any floating point instructions
> had been executed. Programs could then change it in the usual way.
This is what not happens today. And not only not on Linux. Using
this -lieee library to select FPU mode was introcuced in Linux a long
time ago and is widely used. Any change here would cause unnecessary
upset.
> The issue of your proposal being ELF specific is more a matter
> of leaving the door open for future binary formats than it is about
> existing a.out format executables.
Any to-be-designed object format (whatever this should be) can
certainly contain a similar mechanisms so this is no restriction.
> I started writing some code to emulate the version of the FPU
> set control word instruction that glibc uses.
I agree that this is a pain and this is why I don't suggest this. It
would be the easiest solution for the libc side and it would also help
old binaries, but it certainly drains a lot of maintainance time.
-- Uli
---------------. drepper at gnu.org ,-. 1325 Chesapeake Terrace
Ulrich Drepper \ ,-------------------' \ Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA
Cygnus Solutions `--' drepper at cygnus.com `------------------------
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