Re: dpkg 1.1.1elf: many changes, more to come

[Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>]

Guy Maor writes ("Re: dpkg 1.1.1elf: many changes, more to come"):
> On Mon, 11 Mar 1996, Ian Jackson wrote:
> >    Ones which need a kernel which
> >    boots with ELF support should use /usr/lib/i386-elf-in-kernel
> >    instead.
> 
> What packages are in this list?  I maintain getty and login; do they
> require kernel elf support?
> 
> Looking in /etc/init.d/boot, I see all sorts of stuff called before the
> modules are loaded: sh, fsck, mount, cat, sed, depmod, ...  Obviously
> all of these require kernel elf support.
> 
> I'm sure you see what a dangerous mess this could become.  I propose
> that *all* base packages call elf-in-kernel in their preinst scripts.

One example of a package that doesn't need elf-in-kernel is dpkg.  The
same is true of tar and gzip.  These are not used except during
package installation, ie after kernel modules have been loaded.

Ian.