> I'd suggest keeping to ECOFF (which is essentially a.out + small file
> headers) until we know what the status of ELF is on the alpha. It would
> be silly to have two different and incompatible ELF implementations
> (anybody know if OSF/1 is defined now?).
I've talked to a coupled of people, and "heard" that ELF ops aren't defined
for the Alpha. One of the DEC guys should be able to confirm this quick.
> How about just using the original Linux a.out-type shared libraries? The
> only kernel thing you need to do is just to add the "uselib()" system
> call to arch/alpha/kernel/entry.S (I actually did that now, so as of
> 1.3.31, the alpha will have "sys_uselib()" as system call #313).
I'd argue against this. If a.out style shared libraries come into use on
the Alpha, it would be too bad. The only major drawback to the ELF stuff
is compiling -fPIC, and I don't think that would be any measurable
performance hit on a real (i.e. non-Intel) processor.
Whatever you do with shared libs, make sure the dlopen() stuff is supported.
If it's not, someone will redo it later.
Erik
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"Eggheads unite! You have nothing to lose but your yolks" - Adlai Stevenson
Erik Troan = http://sunsite.unc.edu/ewt/ = ewt@sunsite.unc.edu