Re: This thread is silly (Re: Dropping a.out support)

Paul H. Hargrove (hargrove@sccm.Stanford.EDU)
Fri, 2 May 1997 19:26:09 -0700 (PDT)

ig25@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de writes:
[snip]
> So, suppose you install a brand new, really fast machine from a fresh
> distribution which only has ld.so 1.9.2, mount your application server
> via NFS (or copy it over), then try to start up doom or Maple VR3.
>
> What happens?
[snip]

The same thing which happens right now if you install from any recent
(read ELF-based) distribution and don't install the optional a.out
libraries. Presumably the distribtion maintainers are intelligent to
include an a.out-capable loader and dynamic linker along with things
like an a.out libc. So, with a new distribution that ships with ld.so
1.9.2 both the problem and solution will be the same as they are now.

IMHO the discontinuation of support for a.out in ld.so is no different
than the discontinuation of development of a.out libc. It simply
means that a.out binaries will not be able to take advantage of any
improvements (including bug fixes) that are made in newer libraries.
The bigest complication (again IMHO) is the necessity of keeping both
old and new versions in /lib.

-- 
Paul H. Hargrove                   All material not otherwise attributed
hargrove@sccm.stanford.edu         is the opinion of the author or a typo.