Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Wed, 12 Dec 2001 20:48:25 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Wed, 12 Dec 2001 20:48:15 -0500 Received: from [216.151.155.121] ([216.151.155.121]:3346 "EHLO belphigor.mcnaught.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Wed, 12 Dec 2001 20:48:05 -0500 To: Alon Altman Cc: J Sloan , Pozsar Balazs , linux-kernel Subject: Re: Where does 'vmlinuz' come from? In-Reply-To: From: Doug McNaught Date: 12 Dec 2001 20:47:51 -0500 In-Reply-To: Alon Altman's message of "Thu, 13 Dec 2001 02:03:35 +0200 (IST)" Message-ID: Lines: 23 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0806 (Gnus v5.8.6) XEmacs/21.1 (20 Minutes to Nikko) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Alon Altman writes: > On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, J Sloan wrote: > > > Pozsar Balazs wrote: > > > > > This is not a bugreport, but a simple question: :) > > > where does the term vmlinuz come from? > > > > compressed vmlinux = vmlinux.z -> vmlinuz? > > Yes, but I think he wanted to know where 'vmlinux' came from... what does > the "vm" stand for? Virtual Memory? Yes. The kernel binary on ancient AT&T versions was called 'unix'. When Berkeley wrote a new kernel with virtual memory, they called it 'vmunix'. So naturally the Linux kernel is 'vmlinux' and the compressed version is 'vmlinuz' as above. -Doug -- Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees. --T. J. Jackson, 1863 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/