*BSD News Article 65168


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From: "H.J. Lu" <hjl@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs Linux
Date: Thu, 04 Apr 1996 11:18:48 -0800
Organization: Ooops
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Message-ID: <31642098.75AB4317@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
References: <4issad$h1o@nadine.teleport.com> <4jejjt$cdb@park.uvsc.edu> <315E0F1A.4E3FB53D@lucon.org> <Pine.LNX.3.91.960401105810.31921A-100000@gallup.cia-g.com> <4jso8v$n5i@dyson.iquest.net>
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CC: jdp@polstra.com

John S. Dyson wrote:
> 
> In article <Pine.LNX.3.91.960401105810.31921A-100000@gallup.cia-g.com>,
> Stephen Fisher  <lithium@cia-g.com> wrote:
> >Why not sooner?  If ELF was so great then FreeBSD would be switching
> >_right now_.
> >
> It would be silly to switch to ELF right now.  We are not going to for
> at least six months (prob a year) -- even though a contributor already has
> most of the support working.  I am very very happy that our ELF capability is

You should thank Linux for that. Ask John Polstra for yourself. FYI, my
next binutils 2.6.0.12 will support FreeBSD/ELF. 

> being improved, and is working nicely on FreeBSD-current now. We will have the
> support really really debugged instead of subjecting the user base to

You sure can do that since most of ELF tools have been well
debugged under Linux.

> unnecessary trauma.  Even if/when we go to full ELF, we will and must maintain
> a.out support (and probably a.out code generation included) for years.
> 

Linux can generate a.out binaries. We can even link the static
a.out library to generate ELF binaries of ABI is the same.

> There is little to be gained from moving to ELF *right now*, but I

I thought that would create a better ELF for both Linux and FreeBSD.
John found an ELF bug which was undetected under Linux. Ian fixed
it and 2.6.0.11 was released for further testing.

> recognize that it is a nicer binary format, and probably the direction
> that FreeBSD is eventually going in.  IMO, ELF is a really nice binary format --
> but a.out works great for us right now.

But ELF works even greater :-(. BTW, there is an ELF bug. You
should use gcc -shared to build an ELF shared library.
ld -Bshareable won't work in all cases.

> 
> Maybe in fewer words:  why rush it and subject lots of users to unnecessary
> problems? :-).  The release based upon -current most likely will have full
> ELF execution and development support.  So if someone really wants ELF, they
> will be able to use it.  The system will continue to be a.out based for
> the time being.

That means some ELF bugs won't be found/fixed anytime soon.

H.J.