How would you design a new a.out format?

bp@pixar.uucp (Bruce Perens)
12 May 88 21:38:46 GMT

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How would you design a new a.out format? bp@pixar.uucp (1988-05-12)
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From: bp@pixar.uucp (Bruce Perens)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.compilers,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.misc,comp.lang.modula2,comp.lang.pascal,comp.lang.smalltalk
Summary: The a.out format, especially the symbol-table portion, has not aged well. How would you design a new one?
Keywords: a.out, ld, symbol table, name list, linker
Date: 12 May 88 21:38:46 GMT
Followup-To: bp@pixar.uucp (Bruce Perens)
Organization: Pixar -- Marin County, California

Recent net discussion has pointed out the deficiencies in the BSD a.out
format with extensions for DBX, and the ATT COFF format. Source-level
debugging, new languages, resource managers, run-time-linking, and
shared libraries make special demands on the a.out format.
Extensibility of existing Unix a.out formats has been a problem.


What do you want from a new a.out format?
How would you implement one?


DO NOT POST FOLLOW-UPs. Mail them, and I will post a summary.


Mail to: bp@pixar.uucp
uucp: {ucbvax,sun}!pixar!bp
ARPA: pixar!bp@ucbvax.Berkeley.edu
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Bruce Perens - Pixar, Marin County, Ca. 415-258-8167
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