From owner-cvs-all Tue Apr 16 7:19:45 2002 Delivered-To: cvs-all@freebsd.org Received: from pittgoth.com (14.zlnp1.xdsl.nauticom.net [209.195.149.111]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 10AAB37B41B; Tue, 16 Apr 2002 07:19:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (lcl234.zbzoom.net [208.236.36.234]) by pittgoth.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with SMTP id g3GEJS114309; Tue, 16 Apr 2002 10:19:28 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from darklogik@pittgoth.com) Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 10:27:25 -0400 From: Tom Rhodes To: Greg Lehey Cc: trhodes@FreeBSD.org, cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org, cvs-all@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: bss (was: cvs commit: src/share/man/man5 a.out.5) Message-Id: <20020416102725.69c10373.darklogik@pittgoth.com> In-Reply-To: <20020416121308.E40110@canberra.worldwide.lemis.com> References: <200204150205.g3F256861556@freefall.freebsd.org> <20020416121308.E40110@canberra.worldwide.lemis.com> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.7.4 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd4.5) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Tue, 16 Apr 2002 12:13:08 +1000 Greg Lehey wrote: > On Sunday, 14 April 2002 at 19:05:06 -0700, Tom Rhodes wrote: > > trhodes 2002/04/14 19:05:06 PDT > > > > Modified files: > > share/man/man5 a.out.5 > > Log: > > a.out.5 states that nobody seems to agree on what bss stands for. > > This is incorrect, however, as Dennis Ritchie states ``Actually > > the acronym is "block started by symbol." It was a pseudo-op in > > FAP (Fortran Assembly Program), an assembler for the IBM > > machines. It identified its label and set aside space for a given > > number of words.'' > > BSS is one of a number of similar directives for old assemblers, not > just IBM. I've seen it on CDC as well (3200/3400 and 3600/3800). The > reason for the name is that there was also another directive, BES > (block ending with symbol) which reserved space and returned the > address of the last word (because this was convenient for some > repeated instructions). I read about BES when doing the research on BSS, although I did not want to fill up the log area to much. As for BSS not just on IBM, thanks for letting me know. Otherwise I may have just pictured IBM only. Thanks. > > Greg > -- > See complete headers for address and phone numbers > -- Tom (Darklogik) Rhodes www.FreeBSD.org -The Power To Serve www.Pittgoth.com -Pittgoth Discussion Portal trhodes@{Pittgoth.com, FreeBSD.org} PGP key by www: http://www.pittgoth.com/~darklogik/darklogik.key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe cvs-all" in the body of the message