Re: a.out vs. ELF

["Robert G. Brown" <bob@xxxxxxx>]

Chris Gidman (cjgidman@am.pnu.com) Wisely arranged bytes to say...
>     ... In the No BS Guide to Linux, 
>     Rankin makes a bold statement something like "...if you're 
>     downloading binaries, and you have a choice between a.out and ELF 
>     formats, choose ELF because it's newer..."  That's all he says.  
>     That's like saying choose Windows NT because it's new technology. 
>     I don't buy it.  I want a reason.  What is it and why is it 
>     better?
>
>     I suspect that ELF is a format that dynamically links to 
>     libraries but a.out compiles everything in.  Is that correct?
Redistributed with permission....
And the answer....

I've done a liitle research on this, and discovered that ELF is one of a number 
of file structures for executables in various UNIX implementations.  Other forms
are "a.out" form (apparently the oldest and perhaps least flexible), and another
form called COFF.

ELF appears to be the most recently developed form, and has many features 
required in the use of dynamic load libraries, symbolic linking, and so on.