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From:   Matt Turner <mattst88@gmail.com>
Date:   Mon, 11 Mar 2019 15:11:55 -0700
Message-ID: <CAEdQ38HSKy+muCwAk9w0yNCt649HVja1Pe+yY23-4zBjDvWFRA@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86: Deprecate a.out support
To:     Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc:     =?UTF-8?B?TcOlbnMgUnVsbGfDpXJk?= <mans@mansr.com>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
        Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>,
        Alan Cox <gnomes@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
        Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>,
        Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>,
        Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
        kernel list <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        linux-fsdevel <linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org>,
        "the arch/x86 maintainers" <x86@kernel.org>,
        Linux API <linux-api@vger.kernel.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
        Richard Weinberger <richard@nod.at>,
        Anton Ivanov <anton.ivanov@cambridgegreys.com>,
        linux-alpha <linux-alpha@vger.kernel.org>,
        linux-m68k <linux-m68k@lists.linux-m68k.org>
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On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 2:34 PM Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 8:47 PM M=C3=A5ns Rullg=C3=A5rd <mans@mansr.com> =
wrote:
> > Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> writes:
> > > On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 11:08 AM M=C3=A5ns Rullg=C3=A5rd <mans@mansr.=
com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> The latest version I have is 5.1, and that uses ECOFF.
> > >
> > > ECOFF _is_ a.out as far as Linux is concerned.
> > >
> > > So Linux basically treats ECOFF as "regular a.out with just some
> > > header extensions".
> > >
> > > We don't have any specific support for ECOFF.
> > >
> > > I _think_. Again, it's been years and years.
> >
> > Right, which is why killing a.out entirely would have the unfortunate
> > effect of also removing the OSF/1 compatibility on Alpha.
> >
> > If we are to support Alpha as an architecture at all, it makes sense to
> > support the things people actually use it for.
> >
> > Now, personally I can live without it.  I just don't like to see
> > features removed without due consideration.
>
> The main historic use case I've heard of was running Netscape
> Navigator on Alpha Linux, before there was an open source version.
> Doing this today to connect to the open internet is probably
> a bit pointless, but there may be other use cases.

The best use case I know of is to run their C compiler. M=C3=A5ns sent
patches in fact to make it work.

There is a Linux version of the same compiler but I have a vague
memory that it's broken in various ways that the Tru64 version is not.