The patch titled Deprecate a.out ELF interpreters has been added to the -mm tree. Its filename is deprecate-aout-elf-interpreters.patch *** Remember to use Documentation/SubmitChecklist when testing your code *** See http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/patches/stuff/added-to-mm.txt to find out what to do about this ------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Deprecate a.out ELF interpreters From: Andi Kleen <ak@xxxxxxxxxx> The Linux ELF loader is quite complicated and messy code (that could probably need a rewrite, but that's a different chapter). One particular messy part in it is the support for non ELF a.out ld.sos. This was originally added to make transition from a.out to ELF easier because an a.out ELF ld.so could be still build using an older a.out toolkit. But by now that should be fully obsolete and removing it would clean up binfmt_elf.c up a bit. I propose to deprecate this support and remove for 2.6.25. Drawback is that someone still runs their system with a.out ld.so they would need to update the ld.so when updating to a new kernel. This patch just adds an entry to the deprecation file and a printk warning users. Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen <ak@xxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt | 9 +++++++++ fs/binfmt_elf.c | 7 +++++++ 2 files changed, 16 insertions(+) diff -puN Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt~deprecate-aout-elf-interpreters Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt --- a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt~deprecate-aout-elf-interpreters +++ a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt @@ -273,3 +273,12 @@ Why: All mthca hardware also supports MS Who: Roland Dreier <rolandd@xxxxxxxxx> --------------------------- + +What: a.out interpreter support for ELF executables +When: 2.6.25 +Files: fs/binfmt_elf.c +Why: Using a.out interpreters for ELF executables was a feature for + transition from a.out to ELF. But now it is unlikely to be still + needed anymore and removing it would simplify the hairy ELF + loader code. +Who: Andi Kleen <ak@xxxxxxx> diff -puN fs/binfmt_elf.c~deprecate-aout-elf-interpreters fs/binfmt_elf.c --- a/fs/binfmt_elf.c~deprecate-aout-elf-interpreters +++ a/fs/binfmt_elf.c @@ -730,6 +730,7 @@ static int load_elf_binary(struct linux_ /* Some simple consistency checks for the interpreter */ if (elf_interpreter) { + static int warn; interpreter_type = INTERPRETER_ELF | INTERPRETER_AOUT; /* Now figure out which format our binary is */ @@ -741,6 +742,12 @@ static int load_elf_binary(struct linux_ if (memcmp(loc->interp_elf_ex.e_ident, ELFMAG, SELFMAG) != 0) interpreter_type &= ~INTERPRETER_ELF; + if (interpreter_type == INTERPRETER_AOUT && warn < 10) { + printk(KERN_WARNING "a.out ELF interpreter %s is " + "deprecated and will not be supported anymore\n", elf_interpreter); + warn++; + } + retval = -ELIBBAD; if (!interpreter_type) goto out_free_dentry; _ Patches currently in -mm which might be from ak@xxxxxxxxxx are deprecate-aout-elf-interpreters.patch deprecate-aout-elf-interpreters-fix.patch - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe mm-commits" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html