Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU!rms From: r...@WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Stallman) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++ Subject: GCC/G++, Gas, and COFF Message-ID: <8805051602.AA07349@frosted-flakes.ai.mit.edu> Date: 5 May 88 16:02:31 GMT Sender: dae...@eddie.MIT.EDU Lines: 23 Someone says he has converted GAS to produce COFF. He said the changes were not very widespread, but he has not done anything about the debugging information. If someone does make GAS able to substitute fully for the sysV assembler, I would be interested in using the changes only if they do not make GAS significantly harder to maintain. I think this is not the right way to support GCC on sysV. It would be better to make sysV look more like a GNU system. This involves two steps: * Write a translator which will convert a library object module from COFF to BSD format. This isn't terribly hard because there is no debugging information. * Modify GNU ld to add a minimal amount of stuff to the front of a BSD format file to make it executable by the kernel. The symbol table will remain in BSD format. This should be very little change. * Modify GDB to read such files. This should be very little change. Now you can replace all the software for compilation, etc., with the GNU software.
Path: utzoo!telly!ddsw1!lll-winken!killer!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon! tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!toad.com!gnu From: g...@toad.com Newsgroups: gnu.gcc.bug Subject: Re: gas with COFF output Message-ID: <8901122001.AA01178@hop.toad.com> Date: 12 Jan 89 20:01:52 GMT References: <4055@omepd.UUCP> Sender: dae...@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Distribution: gnu Organization: GNUs Not Usenet Lines: 46 I've resurrected a chestnut from the archives about the preferred way to support GNU software (languages in particular) on COFF systems: Date: Thu, 5 May 88 12:02:31 EDT From: r...@wheaties.ai.mit.edu (Richard Stallman) Message-Id: <8805051602.AA07349@frosted-flakes.ai.mit.edu> To: info-...@prep.ai.mit.edu, info-...@prep.ai.mit.edu Subject: GCC/G++, Gas, and COFF Someone says he has converted GAS to produce COFF. He said the changes were not very widespread, but he has not done anything about the debugging information. If someone does make GAS able to substitute fully for the sysV assembler, I would be interested in using the changes only if they do not make GAS significantly harder to maintain. I think this is not the right way to support GCC on sysV. It would be better to make sysV look more like a GNU system. This involves two steps: * Write a translator which will convert a library object module from COFF to BSD format. This isn't terribly hard because there is no debugging information. * Modify GNU ld to add a minimal amount of stuff to the front of a BSD format file to make it executable by the kernel. The symbol table will remain in BSD format. This should be very little change. * Modify GDB to read such files. This should be very little change. Now you can replace all the software for compilation, etc., with the GNU software. ----- Gilmore here again, with two addenda. Before you try tacking a COFF object file header onto the loader output, just try running it with your Sys V kernel. Many Sys V kernels can still run the old V7/BSD style a.out files! The support has been there for years and it was never ripped out. Unisoft ports (A/UX in particular) are this way. The translator from COFF libraries to BSD a.out libraries has been written, though it may need some work (I don't know its current status); mail "g...@prep.ai.mit.edu" for more information. John Gilmore