mixing 32 and 64 bit?

mixing 32 and 64 bit?

[Dieter Stüken]

I just wonder how some userland applications are able to use 64-bit 
capabilities although they are started by an  ELF 32-bit binary. I observed
this when installing vmware: Even if the binary is an ELF32, it is
able to provide an 64Bit ABI to its guest OS. Until now I thought a
process is either 32bit or 64bit. Seems this is not true. 

Has some one a good link or entry point about this topic?
I could not find a matching keyword to search for. 

Regards, Dieter.

Re: mixing 32 and 64 bit?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Jun 09, 2006 at 11:18:56AM +0200, Dieter St?ken wrote:
> I just wonder how some userland applications are able to use 64-bit 
> capabilities although they are started by an  ELF 32-bit binary. I observed
> this when installing vmware: Even if the binary is an ELF32, it is
> able to provide an 64Bit ABI to its guest OS. Until now I thought a
> process is either 32bit or 64bit. Seems this is not true. 
> 
> Has some one a good link or entry point about this topic?
> I could not find a matching keyword to search for. 

VMware also has some kernel modules, which are compiled in whatever
format the kernel is.  I suspect some of this ability comes from those
kernel modules, rather than the user interface you use to control the
vm.

Len Sorensen

Re: mixing 32 and 64 bit?

[Chuck Ebbert]

In-Reply-To: <44893D00.8090807@conterra.de>

On Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:18:56 +0200, Dieter Stueken wrote:

> I just wonder how some userland applications are able to use 64-bit 
> capabilities although they are started by an  ELF 32-bit binary. I observed
> this when installing vmware: Even if the binary is an ELF32, it is
> able to provide an 64Bit ABI to its guest OS. Until now I thought a
> process is either 32bit or 64bit. Seems this is not true. 
> 
> Has some one a good link or entry point about this topic?
> I could not find a matching keyword to search for. 

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?t=110202845100001&r=1&w=2

-- 
Chuck