Re: ELF psABI definition for VAX?

[Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%panix.com@localhost>]

On Mon, Feb 03, 2025 at 02:52:36PM -0800, Jason Thorpe wrote:
> 
> > On Feb 3, 2025, at 2:35???PM, Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%panix.com@localhost> wrote:
> > 
> > When Matt Thomas was originally working on this, we had both heard of, and I
> > had actually seen, VAXen inside AT&T or its former subsidiaries that were
> > running SVR4.
> 
> I mean, isn???t it entirely possible that it was using ECOFF?  (Didn???t Ultrix for VAX use ECOFF?)

I'm pretty sure Ultrix on VAX was a.out.  It could certainly run
4.2BSD a.out binaries.  It did have some kind of SVR2 or SVR3
compatibility mode and it's possible that could run COFF binaries.
I don't think I've seen ECOFF anywhere but on MIPS.

Were there any SVR4 ports that didn't use ELF?  The AT&T spinout
where I saw and briefly used the VAX running SVR4 also had a bunch
of 3B20s and I think 3B15s, but aside from noticing that they were
all powered from the overhead 48V busbars and that the VAX must
have been a real nuisance for their electricians, I never did
anything with those.