Re: Request: Regarding the phasing out of "a.out support" in Linux Kernels

Re: Request: Regarding the phasing out of "a.out support" in Linux Kernels

[Borislav Petkov]

On Sat, Apr 09, 2022 at 04:02:23PM +0100, Non Null wrote:
> But I still wanted to ask that it remain active in 5.18's full release
> while announced that it would be inactive/turned off by default in the
> future 5.19 & 5.20 releases (5.20 being the last that would have it as
> inactive before full removal of related code) if LTS

That is the plan - it will be removed in 5.19.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette

Re: Request: Regarding the phasing out of "a.out support" in Linux Kernels

[Borislav Petkov]

[ Readding back previous recipients. ]

On Sat, Apr 09, 2022 at 05:16:52PM +0100, NULL wrote:
> Thank you for your reply, I was hoping more that the 327 aout.o lines would
> remain in makefile & arch /ia32/ia32_aout.c for 5.19 (even if ignored by
> default KConfig flags as a test to see if it would break anything for
> other) as opposed to the currently proposed PR.
> 
> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip.git/diff/?h=x86/cleanups&id=f9444ea5e20847d1dd4a98d4dff4cc97655834bb
> 
>  Essentially just asking for 5.19 to announce the proposed removal & to
> hold/push the ia32 commits back by one or two releases, With complete
> removal of all the code only occurring in 5.21's Release.

First of all, please hit "reply-to-all" when replying to a mail on a
public mailing list so that others can see the conversation too and can
participate, if they wish.

Then, it is kinda hard to take you seriously if your name is "NULL" or
"Non Null". If I'm using my real name - you could too.

Furthermore, you haven't given any concrete reason why you'd need this
except maybe something along the lines that it might be good to have it
in an LTS release. And that's not nearly a good reason to keep ancient
code which no one uses and which current toolchains can't even produce.

If you've followed the previous discussions, there was a pretty simple
ELF loader posted for a.out executables so it's not like there are no
alternatives. You can also run an older kernel in a VM. And so on...

Finally, pls do not top-post but put your reply underneath the next
you're commenting on like I just did.

Thx.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette

Fwd: Request: Regarding the phasing out of "a.out support" in Linux Kernels

[NULL]

 Forwarding To Relevant People.
 (Have been unable to respond to previous talks, many apologies for
the late input.)



  --------- Forwarding message --------
From: <ayz.out@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 9, 2022
 Subject: Request: Regarding the phasing out of "a.out support" in Linux Kernels

To: <bp@alien8.de>, <x86@kernel.org>
Cc: <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>, <bp@suse.de>, <arnd@arndb.de>


Noticed in the previous conversations that it was mentioned nobody had
complained of it being removed, I do understand that everything must
be taken out eventually...

But I still wanted to ask that it remain active in 5.18's full release
while announced that it would be inactive/turned off by default in the
future 5.19 & 5.20 releases (5.20 being the last that would have it as
inactive before full removal of related code) if LTS

I feel that would be considered a fair & reasonable 'heads up' and
provide a modern LTS version of the kernel that has the function still
available by default.
 This is just a simple request from an interested user of Linux that
wouldn't be as qualified or experienced as some of the others involved
in the decision making process & I always would of-course respect
whatever final decision that everyone lands on after the discussions
are closed. :3