Subject: Re: Removing compat/aout
To: None <jdolecek@netbsd.org>
From: Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@netbsd.org>
List: tech-kern
Date: 03/08/2002 11:10:01
On Fri, 8 Mar 2002, Jaromir Dolecek wrote:

> Hi,
> I'd like to finally completely nuke all remains of compat/aout code
> from the system.  The modified a.out ld.so which looks in /emul/aout
> first is much better solution to the problem, and actually _works_
> on systems with mix of NetBSD ELF & a.out binaries.
>
> To quote what someone else said I agree with:
> """
> COMPAT_AOUT is horribly dangerous, screws you, makes all your binaries work
> wrong, and forces you to delete every last a.out binary in order
> to have your machine work normally again.
> """

What parts are there to compat_aout? Is it more than just the path
translation?

It seems like the path translation still has some value, as Todd's message
points out.

It's off by default, isn't it?

> I'd also like to significantly reduce compat/aoutm68k. Particularily,
> I'd like to nuke all but the stat structure ABI conversion hooks - AFAIK
> this is the only reason to keep it.

What exactly are we talking about nuking? What is there besides structure
changes?

Take care,

Bill