Comments on: End of an era, Linux to Deprecate a.out support https://virtuallyfun.com/2019/03/09/end-of-an-era-linux-to-deprecate-a-out-support/ Fun with Virtualization Mon, 11 Mar 2019 10:53:42 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: neozeed https://virtuallyfun.com/2019/03/09/end-of-an-era-linux-to-deprecate-a-out-support/comment-page-1/#comment-209531 Mon, 11 Mar 2019 10:53:42 +0000 https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/?p=9266#comment-209531 In reply to bbslovag.

12. Null terminated stringsoeoeoitototw

]]> By: bbslovag https://virtuallyfun.com/2019/03/09/end-of-an-era-linux-to-deprecate-a-out-support/comment-page-1/#comment-209526 Mon, 11 Mar 2019 09:31:28 +0000 https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/?p=9266#comment-209526 Yegor Yegorowitch Informatitcsh has 3 enemies:
1. backward compatibility
2. backward incompatibility
3. Spring
4. Winter
8. maths, ordering, numbering
6. Aoutumn
6. grammar
8. Summer, Akkad

C:\TEMP\WINDOWS\FIREFOX32.EXE aout:blank

]]> By: Ian Dunbar https://virtuallyfun.com/2019/03/09/end-of-an-era-linux-to-deprecate-a-out-support/comment-page-1/#comment-209459 Sun, 10 Mar 2019 09:18:11 +0000 https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/?p=9266#comment-209459 In reply to Bill S..

“I personally expect that i686 will live on in mainline Linux long after most distros give up support. Similarly NetBSD will probably keep i686 for at least another 10 years probably longer”

Hope so. I’ve got a Pentium Pro 200 system running NetBSD that I use from time to time. Makes a good bridge between modern systems, and the truly old ones.

]]> By: neozeed https://virtuallyfun.com/2019/03/09/end-of-an-era-linux-to-deprecate-a-out-support/comment-page-1/#comment-209438 Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:20:41 +0000 https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/?p=9266#comment-209438 In reply to Bill S..

I need to update the article, but apparently they are going to just cut the a.out coredumps which apparently don’t work anyways. It looks like the a.out loader will remain. For now.

]]> By: Bill S. https://virtuallyfun.com/2019/03/09/end-of-an-era-linux-to-deprecate-a-out-support/comment-page-1/#comment-209393 Sat, 09 Mar 2019 08:55:21 +0000 https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/?p=9266#comment-209393 I was actually slightly surprised by this since Linux takes such a strong stance on kernel changes not breaking userspace and in Linux its common to update kernels independently of the rest of the system (something we don’t really do in the BSDs). From what I understand the ABI of a distro is largely based on the the libc the distro uses, picked by the distro and ‘any kernel should work’ whereas in the BSDs or Illumos the kernel and libc have tighter coupling and libc is expected to have the stable interface. I think macOS takes this to the extreme and the kernel interfaces are explicitly unstable between even minor versions.

All that said, a.out is old enough probably almost nobody will be truly too inconvenienced and you can keep using LTS kernels for quite a while too for that matter.

I personally expect that i686 will live on in mainline Linux long after most distros give up support. Similarly NetBSD will probably keep i686 for at least another 10 years probably longer. (NetBSD still supports VAX after all).

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