what executable format is using in your own os?

mcheung63 · Post by **mcheung63** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:13 pm

what executable format is using in your own os? ELF? exe? coff? aout?

piranha · Post by **piranha** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:43 pm

I think that you should add the question of "why are you using that executable?"

As for me, it's ELF. And I don't know why.

I may be asked why I don't know later, but for now I don't care much.
(I'm watching a movie)

pcmattman · Post by **pcmattman** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:05 am

ELF, because it integrates nicely with my paging code

.

JamesM · Post by **JamesM** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:37 am

ELF, because I'm using linux and every tool works with it. And GRUB supports it fully, as opposed to the kludgy-at-best support it has for AOUT. Grub can also load your ELF symbol table for you

ooooh my kernel is backtrace heaven!

AJ · Post by AJ » Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:26 am

Also ELF, because I have an ELF cross compiler on cygwin.

When I used DJGPP, I used COFF and when I experimented with MinGW, I used PE, just because they were the standard output formats. My second-stage boot loader relocates ELF and will soon relocate COFF and PE too, so it won't really matter. I will never go back to flat binary again!

Cheers,
Adam

AndrewAPrice · Post by **AndrewAPrice** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:31 am

ELF.. It's so simple to use, just scan the program headers and copy into memory!

Lprogster · Post by **Lprogster** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 6:04 am

Am I the only one using plain binary? I would like to include ELF support in the future.

jerryleecooper · Post by **jerryleecooper** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 6:39 am

Right now the executable file format I use is a plain C function. My kernel is just multithreading/multitasking. No working floppy driver yet. Im working on it. But when it will be done. I will probably use ELF and binary, begining on binary, and ELF after.

AJ · Post by AJ » Thu Aug 23, 2007 6:54 am

Lprogster wrote:Am I the only one using plain binary? I would like to include ELF support in the future.

I'm sure lots of people are using plain binary. I was converted after misjudging the bss size kept causing my kernel to crash. Don't be put off by the docs - ELF and COFF are only marginally more difficult to get working than flat binaries.

Cheers,
Adam

inflater · Post by **inflater** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:12 am

Plain binary (wow I'm the second one

) for applications, MZ EXE for the kernel, as for upcoming PortixOS 0.4. I'm planning to implement PE EXE, COFF and ELF in the future (versions 0.5 and up

)

MessiahAndrw wrote:ELF.. It's so simple to use, just scan the program headers and copy into memory!

MZ EXE is the same. You just read the exe relocation table, set DS, SS, ES and "future" values of CS and IP and you can load the kernel. This applies to real mode. In protected mode you can skip the whole relocation section. (Is that format relocatable then?)

Regards
inflater

Lprogster · Post by **Lprogster** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:16 am

What docs should I read [for ELF]? Could you post some links?

inflater · Post by **inflater** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:22 am

For MZ EXE ?

Thats just old. Or for binary? You do not need docs for binary format I think.

For ELF, COFF, ... etc, hmm, maybe the wikipedia does help (sorry for "RTFM-ish answer" but dunno, I do not implement these things now in my OS)

bluecode · Post by **bluecode** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:39 am

elf32
elf64 (x86-64 ABI) (In addition to the above)
PE/Coff

Lprogster · Post by **Lprogster** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:41 am

Sorry... I was in a hurry

! I meant the ELF docs - thanks for the links.

Dex · Post by **Dex** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:51 am

I am using plain binary, coff, PE and for my kernel a MZ exe file.
The coff is for relocatable drivers.
Note: i can load PE, but i do not use them much.