From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1MOY7E-0000PO-FW for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:27:20 -0400 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MOY7C-0000OV-HH for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:27:18 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MOY77-0000L2-Mq for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:27:17 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=44185 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1MOY77-0000Ko-8Z for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:27:13 -0400 Received: from smtp-vbr17.xs4all.nl ([194.109.24.37]:4672) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1MOY76-0002g9-Qg for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:27:13 -0400 Received: from marco (249-174.surfsnel.dsl.internl.net [145.99.174.249]) by smtp-vbr17.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n68ER9ht096177 for ; Wed, 8 Jul 2009 16:27:09 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from mgerards@xs4all.nl) From: Marco Gerards To: The development of GRUB 2 References: Mail-Copies-To: mgerards@xs4all.nl Date: Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:27:08 +0200 In-Reply-To: (bean123ch@gmail.com's message of "Wed, 8 Jul 2009 19:31:46 +0800") Message-ID: <87ws6jntc3.fsf@xs4all.nl> User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: FreeBSD 4.6-4.9 Subject: Re: [RFC] New object format for grub2 X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GRUB 2 List-Id: The development of GRUB 2 List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:27:18 -0000 Hi, Bean writes: > Why another format ? Here are some reason: > > The current object format is ELF. Most unix based os use ELF as native > object format, but there are minor difference, and gcc may add extra > segment which is of no use for grub. Mingw/cygwin uses PE, and we need > to convert it to ELF. Platform like OSX also requires special > treatment. All these make the build system complicated, so we might > just use an unified format specific to grub. > > The ELF format is designed to be compatible with many system, it's > neither compact nor easy to parse. If we invent a new format, we > should make it simple. There is another problem with this: the maintainance burden. People know ELF, we have ELF and people will know ELF in the future. Furthermore, as far as I am concerned, GNU/Linux is our main platform. I do not mind supporting windows or so and we can support it in a sane way, but changing our binary formats for it is one step too far for me... -- Marco