Re: PATCH: Add archive support to ELF

[Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>]

Hi H.J.

>> But the whole point of readelf is that it *doesn't* use the BFD
>> library.
>
> Can you compile readelf without including "bfd.h"? Claiming readelf
> doesn't use BFD is misleading.

One of the design goals of the binutils implementation of readelf was
that it should work without using the BFD library code.  The reason
for this was so that it would not inherit any bugs present in the bfd
library, and so act as a counterpoint/alternative to it.

I agree that giving readelf the ability to scan through archives is a
good idea, but I would prefer, if possible, to do this without using
the BFD library code.


> The only thing in bfd my patch uses is the host file I/O to access
> archive members. My readelf configured for ELF/i386 only can read
> ELF/ia64 without any problems.

In which case it ought to be relatively easy to port this code into
readelf, tidy it up, remove any non-ELF support pieces, and maybe even
streamline it.

Would you be prepared to do this ?

Cheers
        Nick