From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Nov 9 06:25:49 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id GAA13195 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 06:25:49 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers) Received: from heron.doc.ic.ac.uk (0s3QtN1EFLn3v1zC1+NQey8g8/AJhMwO@heron.doc.ic.ac.uk [146.169.2.31]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id GAA13187 for ; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 06:25:45 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from njs3@doc.ic.ac.uk) Received: from oak68.doc.ic.ac.uk [146.169.33.68] ([s0n/XDyqUuM5wa1vpTzrs2mnUzl3KRqp]) by heron.doc.ic.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 1.62 #3) id 0xUYJl-0007gc-00; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 14:26:25 +0000 Received: from njs3 by oak68.doc.ic.ac.uk with local (Exim 1.62 #3) id 0xUYIo-0000rQ-00; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 14:25:26 +0000 From: njs3@doc.ic.ac.uk (Niall Smart) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 14:25:26 +0000 In-Reply-To: Warner Losh "Re: a.out format" (Nov 8, 6:07pm) X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.5 10/14/92) To: Warner Losh , njs3@doc.ic.ac.uk (Niall Smart) Subject: Re: a.out format Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Message-Id: Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Nov 8, 6:07pm, Warner Losh wrote: } Subject: Re: a.out format > In message Niall Smart writes: > : Don't suppose anyone knows how the "a.out" format got its name? > > "ld foo.o" used to produce (and still does) a file called a.out by > default. It used to be the only format. Now, that there are others, > you gotta call it something :-). > > Where the name a.out came from is generally believed to be short for > "assembler output" but there has been some other rumors I've heard > over the years. Kinda like .bss (which is supposedly from an old IBM > op code for Blank Storage Section, which was all zeros, but I'm > digressing). Ah, I've also heard Block Started by Symbol, but I prefer Blank Storage Section. Niall