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From:   Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
Date:   Fri, 14 Jan 2022 20:00:50 +0100
Message-ID: <CAMuHMdVFS1GZ_mkC3t6aZoUJKGxXsZxk_M7wSza4=Nwfi4_6Rw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86: Remove a.out support
To:     "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
Cc:     Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>, X86 ML <x86@kernel.org>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>,
        Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>,
        Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
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Hi Ted,

On Fri, Jan 14, 2022 at 7:58 PM Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu> wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 14, 2022 at 03:52:29PM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > On Fri, Jan 14, 2022 at 3:36 PM Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de> wrote:
> > > Btw, pls do note that this is removing only the x86 a.out support -
> > > other arches (m68k and alpha) still select HAVE_AOUT and thus the
> > > respective glue in fs/binfmt_aout.c
> >
> > Quoting myself (do I need a canned response for this? ;-):
> >    "I think it's safe to assume no one still runs a.out binaries on m68k."
> >
> > https://lore.kernel.org/r/CAMuHMdVGT1QN8WUqNcU8ihPLncUGfrjV49wb-8nHUgHhOzLeNw@mail.gmail.com/
> > https://lore.kernel.org/r/CAMuHMdW+m0Q+j3rsQdMXnrEPm+XB5Y2AQrxW5sD1mZAKgmEqoA@mail.gmail.com
> >
> > Of course, m68k is not encumbered by a.out Netscape binaries, unlike
> > ia32 and alpha ;-)
>
> And Alpha's a.out Netscape binary is what required OSF/1 compatible
> system calls, so if and when we ever can nuke a.out Alpha support, so
> perhaps there might also be an opporunity to remove OSF/1
> compatibility support...

As we seem to be reiterating a discussion from 2019, let's read last
time's summary first:
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/deprecating-aout-binaries

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds