[1080] in SIPB_Linux_Development
Re: ELF migration. (Go lemmings go!)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)
Thu Oct 5 22:13:18 1995
To: eichin@MIT.EDU
Cc: jered@MIT.EDU, linux-dev@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 05 Oct 1995 16:55:11 EDT."
<199510052055.QAA25434@tweedledumber.cygnus.com>
Date: Thu, 05 Oct 1995 22:13:00 EDT
From: Derek Atkins <warlord@MIT.EDU>
> I only know of
> * working dlopen/dlsym dynamic loading support
> [good for perl5 and marc-java]
> * elf libs are easier to construct
These are the two main reasons... But I think shared library support
is important. Some of the work that I'm doing at Sun involves making
shared libraries, and it would be nice if I could use the same code
on my Linux box.
Working dlopen/dlsym is a neat concept (although not many programs use
it). Yes, this is a neat programmer thing, but if I'm going to be
able to use the features, it requires people are able to use it.
As for shared libraries, I can EASILY see building all of Linux-Athena
with shared libraries. It would make the installed base much smaller,
and would make the abiility to update much easier. Shared libraries
are NOT a bad thing, and making shared libraries easier is a Good
Thing (TM).
Yes, ELF over a.out is mostly benefitting to the programmer, but users
at least need to be able to access and run ELF in order for the
programmers to have this easier time. Most of my views are that I
would like to use some of the ELF functionality in code that I am
working ok, and I would like others to be able to run it... That
requires users to have the ability to run ELF.
I think most of us agree that we should not stop supporting a.out,
however as the Linux world moves towards ELF, do believe that we will
have to follow.
-derek
PS: Speed-queen is a Linux Build Engine for DCNS. It is still a.out
(running 1.2.2 -- I should upgrade to 1.2.13). I can probably
convince the DCNS people to allow SIPB-types access to the machine so
that we have a stable a.out build engine. Alternatively, SIPB can
get (yet) another machine....
