Subject: Re: Elf on SPARC?
To: Eduardo E. Horvath <eeh@one-o.com>
From: Todd Vierling <tv@pobox.com>
List: port-sparc
Date: 11/05/1997 06:48:09
On Tue, 4 Nov 1997, Eduardo E. Horvath wrote:

: P.S.  Anyone consider switching native NetBSD SPARC to elf executables?

Not really; a.out works just fine, and we don't yet have need for elf64 as
you proposed (there's no real architecture support for 64 bit
addressing--you'd need an Ultra for that, and we don't support the Ultra
yet).

Switching to ELF32 would be a nightmare if you were going to try to
incorporate Linux or SVR4 compatibility options (the former still being
worked on); both use ELF32, and as many have stated here before, ELF32 has
no platform identifier to distinguish the various emulations.

[ObECP (Obligatory Emulation Curiosity Point):  How's about a sysctl to
alter, dynamically, the order by which exec_elf32 determines a binary?  Er,
that is, which elf32 module it attempts to use _first_ befor trying th rest.
'Course, "OLF" format would be even better....]

=====
== Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Business tv@lucent.com)
== I know you like the Internet, Bobby.  Now go eat your Frosted Flakes.