Re: GNU tools netbsd vs netbsdelf

[Simon Burge <simonb%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

"John Ericson" wrote:

> Well, it's been a few weeks but things did move along upstream.
> netbsdpe, per the conversation in the other thread is slated for
> removal (there is a 1 release deprecation cycle for Bintuils). And the
> netbsd new-default change is tentatively approved with some conditions
> in https://sourceware.org/pipermail/binutils/2021-July/117378.html
>
> The main condition is the nature of ns32k support in NetBSD:
> > One problem with that - the NS32K target.  As far as I can see this
> > target only supports aout format NetBSD, not ELF...
> > 
> > Possibly NS32K support in NetBSD is entirely deprecated.  If so,
> > then we can add the ns32k-netbsd target to the obsolete list.  But I
> > would like to have you confirm this first.
>
> So, my main question (sorry this is a bit buried amid the quotes) is,
> what is the nature of NS32K support in NetBSD?
>  * Is it deprecated/removed?

Unfortunately ns32k support was removed from NetBSD in January 2008.

>  * If not, does it in fact support ELF after all?

It never did support ELF :(.  I got as far as requesting an ELF machine
ID for ns32k but never did a binutils backend for it.

>  * If not, should this be a show-stopper to the treatment of netbsd
>    as netbsdelf instead of netbsdaout, or is it fine if ns32k-netbsdelf
>    needs to be use?

If, in the unlikely case that NetBSD ever gets ns32k support back
again, it would be for an ELF target.  I've got no problem with the
"ns32k-netbsd" target defaulting to ELF.

Hope this answers all your questions.  Let me know if you need any
more info.

Cheers,
Simon.