10 Dec
2015
10 Dec
'15
4:31 a.m.
On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 5:16 PM, Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu>
wrote:
Actually, it's read by the exec() system call (in sys1.c).
To be fair UNIX was the naming sinner here IMO. Unix's ld command is the
"link editor", and exec(2) is the "program loader" in the pure
OS/academic
naming sense. I never asked Dennis or Ken why those names were not used.
I suspect like creat(2) it made sense at the time and then by the time the
functions leveled out, it was embedded too deep the change it.
BTW: the DEC (vms) link editor runs on Ultrix (PDP-11 and Vaxen). The
binaries are part of the Fortran kit. I'm not sure if it will run on V7
but it might work on BSD 2.x. It's author sits a few feet from me these
days. When DEC finally went to support DEC standard Fortran on UNIX it
was just easier to make the VMS link know how to output an a.out (and macho
files) and the end, then it was to try to add the features they needed for
Fortran to ld and a.out.
It's interesting hearing from Paul his issues over the years between, Unix,
NT, Apple etc., a.out, COFF, and other formats.
Clem