Re: elf, a.out and debian 1.*

["William S. Gribble" <grib@cs.utexas.edu>]

Raul writes:
> I meant we should support parallel instances of a.out and elf binary
> packages.  Currently, we're pretty much oriented on having only one
> instance of a package available.  Until elf is really ready (which
> means, stable api, tested on a wide variety of platforms, and stable
> for a while) it could be a real lifesaver to be able to back off and
> use a (hopefully) working a.out imlementation.

I guess I'm a little out of the loop; I wasn't aware that ELF had problems
with stability, especially at the level of its API.  Are there problems
that have come up with particular packages that have been determined to
be ELF problems? If not, what makes you think there are stability problems? 

And ``tested on a wide variety of platforms''... hasn't ELF been
around on every other Intel UNIX, every Sys V Unix for that matter?  I
guess you meant `Linux hardware' == `platforms'.  In that case, are there
any indications that ELF has or could have problems with any particular
Linux hardware?  I haven't heard any. 

Bill Gribble