Looking for a.out file compare

I am investigating methods for comparing a.out (and b.out) format files in
an attempt to determine if they are functionally identical.


Two identical sets of C++ files can produce a different (a la cmp) .o file
because of things like preprocessor macros __FILE__, __LINE__, __DATE__
and __TIME__ and the fact that the include paths may change between
instances. All this info is found in the .o file.


Is there any tips on comparing two .o's and determining if they are
functionally identical. I understand there is a library specifically for
accessing a.out files.


The reason I want to do this is to eliminate storing a new .o if it is
identical to it predecessor in a previous stream. When we are looking at
thousands of files the storage space saving is considerable. It also has a
positive influence on our process.


You could followup or forward info to ceagan@bnr.ca.


Thanks.. Charles Eagan


Bell Northern Research
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
North America, Earth
[GCC does something like this using a simple hack that throws away the
beginning of each file and compares the rest. Seems to work OK. -John]
--

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.