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Re: RFC: Add 32bit x86-64 support to binutils
On 01/04/2011 11:46 PM, Jan Beulich wrote:
>>>
>>> Oh god, please, no.
>>>
>>> I have to say I'm highly questioning to Jan's statement in the first
>>> place. Crossing 32- and 64-bit ELF like that sounds like a kernel
>>> security hole waiting to happen.
>
> A particular OS/kernel has the freedom to not implement support for
> other than the default format. But having the ABI disallow it
> altogether certainly isn't the right choice. And yes, we had been
> allowing cross-bitness ELF in an experimental (long canceled) OS
> of ours.
>
>> Yeah, and there are other targets where the elf class determines ABI
>> too (e.g. EM_S390 is used for both 31-bit and 64-bit binaries and
>> the ELF class determines which).
>
> So the usual thing is going to happen - someone made a mistake (I'm
> convinced the ELF class was never meant to affect anything but the
> file format), and this gets taken as an excuse to let the mistake
> spread.
>
I don't think it's all that unreasonable to say the ELF class affects
the ABI. After all, there are lots of things about the ABI that is
related to the ELF class -- the format of the GOT and PLT, for one thing.
-hpa