From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 1 10:51:56 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 753E3106564A; Thu, 1 Apr 2010 10:51:56 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from daniel.rodrick@gmail.com) Received: from mail-pz0-f191.google.com (mail-pz0-f191.google.com [209.85.222.191]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3E6F28FC21; Thu, 1 Apr 2010 10:51:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: by pzk29 with SMTP id 29so968452pzk.27 for ; Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:51:55 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:date:received:message-id :subject:from:to:content-type; bh=F5qurhc6roRcVBsEHj4D3HjHdvJKzQvvZrDvikPcj+k=; b=uBmEoWUZou9ZBe9y3cx2ZAvBs4wK5tHv2kR0qUDAJU+eStOm/yzwtNcRl3/ZZbRDIX jfl9OyQu+KjP64xqaKEC9yO0uUefgFRIq3T4hZ8YlfbEmeDvlnTjaaQzIfWtGxpdvigq scvgAUnr4n/qTJbIJrbitJc+SAG8i/igX+dng= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; b=UocfQB/Q1bT/3Z8a3Wf29w5MiD5DyJBQpHBv0Uuam6lb4utKQ12WAp+SAS/BpSVbns ZKHlA8rziwnRAmor4Z+JYhfwRXmsNk1paOTvYRzQ8nnp2qu++Yy5Xq4DdEpQnvkyUFXd n/d9ZKJms++RjByP2CKiYAAuapqKNmvd9LlUg= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.142.165.10 with HTTP; Thu, 1 Apr 2010 03:23:50 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 15:53:50 +0530 Received: by 10.143.24.15 with SMTP id b15mr116786wfj.147.1270117430542; Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:23:50 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: From: Daniel Rodrick To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-drivers@freebsd.org, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: Subject: Newbie question: kernel image a dynamically linked binary? X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:51:56 -0000 Hello List, I'm a newbie and coming from Linux background, and am trying to learn FreeBSD now. The first thing I find a little confusing is that the final FreeBSD kernel image is shown as a DYNAMICALLY LINKED binary: $ $ pwd /boot/kernel $ $ file kernel kernel: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (FreeBSD), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped $ How can the kernel image use shared libraries? And which ones does it use, if any? Also, I cannot find out the libraries the image uses using the traditional ldd command: $ ldd kernel kernel: kernel: signal 6 $ Can some please throw some light? Thanks, Dan