On Fri, 3 Aug 2001, Manuel Bouyer wrote:

: > 	i think the option has to be backwards - the default behavior has to be
: > 	with EXEC_ELF_CATCHALL (and tweak something if you want to run netbsd
: > 	binary only).
:
: I don't think so. This option can be dangerous (could erase files, etc)
: if you're unluky. I think that a user that wants to runs a program which
: doesn't have a NetBSD signature should really know what he's doing.

"Assembly programs without crt0" is not a convincing argument for running
signatureless binaries, since such programs are inherently MD and can be
told to create a .note section.  So, platforms for which ELF always had
signatures don't need this on by default.  The option should be there, of
course; perhaps something like COMPAT_ELF_NONOTE might be a better name....

However, backwards compatibility dictates that this must be on by default
for any configuration that might run NetBSD-shipped binaries without .note
sections.  Someone said 1.3 mipsel, right?  So, if COMPAT_13 is turned on in
a mipsel kernel, this fallback must be enabled by default.

The correct solution is to identify the situations where NetBSD shipped
.note-less binaries, and enable this fallback automatically on those
particular COMPAT_ options/platforms even if the separate kernel option is
not enabled.

-- 
-- Todd Vierling <tv@wasabisystems.com>  *  Wasabi NetBSD:  Run with it.
-- NetBSD 1.5 now available on CD-ROM  --  http://www.wasabisystems.com/