From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Aug 1 11:23:07 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id LAA29661 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 1 Aug 1996 11:23:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from jraynard.demon.co.uk (jraynard.demon.co.uk [158.152.42.77]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id LAA29566 for ; Thu, 1 Aug 1996 11:22:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from fqueries@localhost) by jraynard.demon.co.uk (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA10800; Thu, 1 Aug 1996 16:40:35 GMT From: James Raynard Message-Id: <199608011640.QAA10800@jraynard.demon.co.uk> Subject: Re: MASM, and coff, and elf, oh my! To: garyh@agora.rdrop.com (Gary Hanson) Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 16:40:34 +0000 () Cc: questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: from "Gary Hanson" at Jul 31, 96 10:49:21 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24 ME8a] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > 2.1.5 does _not_ support Linux elf format, right? Pity. I -really- > don't want to run current at the moment. 'Fraid so. > I have a Linux app that I'd like to port to FreeBSD, but it doesn't look > like it'll be easy. Most of the work is done by routines written in > Microsoft assembler. The author then ran the coff-format output of MASM > through some linux program that elf-ized them. I have the coff and elf > binaries, but not the MASM sources (but I can probably get them). Yuck! Why didn't he/she just write them in GNU assembler (which is also available on MSDOS, BTW)? > So, it looks like I'd need one or more of the following: > > 1. To run FreeBSD-current and use the already-built elf executable (This > option is ruled out by definition). > > 2. A MASM-to-GAS translator (These exist [where?], but are not painless > and automatic, right?) Try looking at the comp.lang.asm.x86 FAQ - this has got an amazing number of URL's in it (whether any of them are any good is another question, of course). > 3. A linker that can read coff or elf object files (I don't think this > exists in BSD). Well, the iBSC2 emulator can read SCO COFF object files - I don't know if there's anything in there which might be of use... > There's also the question of whether the MASM routines would work > properly under BSD WRT register usage, stack usage etc, but I'm > optimistically not worrying about that right now. Should I worry? I usually try and cross one bridge at a time. It does wonders for morale :-)