Bug#330599: binfmt-support: Octal escape sequence

[Moritz Muehlenhoff <jmm@inutil.org>]

On Thu, Sep 29, 2005 at 09:50:59AM -0600, Shaun Jackman wrote:
> 2005/9/29, Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>:
> > On Wed, Sep 28, 2005 at 02:41:34PM -0600, Shaun Jackman wrote:
> > > binfmt-support allows the hex \x## escape sequence for the magic
> > > option. Could the magic option also support the octal \### escape
> > > sequence? It is particularly nice for \0, \1, etc.
> >
> > It's actually the kernel's binfmt_misc module that does the
> > interpretation of \x. I could probably make update-binfmts mangle the
> > magic byte-sequence on the way through, but I think it might be better
> > just to teach the kernel to understand octal escapes. Does that make
> > sense to you?
> 
> That surprises me. I thought the interface to the kernel would be
> something a little more... orthogonal. For example...
> 	$ grep magic /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/arm-elf
> 	magic 7f454c4601010161
> The preceding would be a sensible format for the kernel interface to
> me. the binfmt_misc/register interface being what it is though, I'd
> agree that teaching the kernel to understand octal escape sequences
> makes sense.

[ Following up a little belated... ]

Current kernels doesn't have support for an octal sequence. If you
want to see this implemented, please propose the change on the
Linux kernel mailing list (linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org), the Debian
BTS isn't the ideal place for this.

Cheers,
        Moritz